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ALAMO    RANCH 


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ALAMO    RANCH 


A  Story  of  New  Mexico 


BY 

SARAH   WARNER   BROOKS 

Author  of  "My  Fire  Opal,"  **The  Search  of  Ceres/'  etc. 


CAMBRIDGE 
PRIVATELY    PRINTED 

MCMIII 


•    ••  •       ••••• 

.  : : .;  ••:.•.••••    .  . 

•  •  •  •  I  *•  •  ••*•    •  •• 


ONIVKR8ITY    PRESS    .     JOHN    WILSON 
AND    SON    .     CAMBRIDGS     .     U.  S.  A. 


TO   LEON 

Across  the  silence  that  between  us  stays^ 

Speak  !    I  should  hear  it  from  GocTs  outmost  sun^ 

Above  Earth's  noise  of  idle  blame  and  praise^  — 
The  longed-for  whisper  of  thy  dear  *'^Well  done!^* 


ALAMO    RANCH 

A    STORY    OF    NEW    MEXICO 


CHAPTER    I 

IT  is  autumn;  and  the  last  week  in  November. 
In  New  Mexico,  this  land  of  sunshine,  the  sea- 
son is  now  as  kindly  as  in  the  early  weeks  of  our 
Northern  September. 

To-day  the  sky  is  one  cloudless  arch  of  sapphire ! 
The  light  breeze  scarce  ruffles  a  leaf  of  the  tall 
alamo,  the  name  tree  of  this  ranch.  Here  any 
holding  bigger  than  a  kitchen  garden  is  known  as 
a  ranch.  The  alamo,  Spanish  for  poplar,  lends 
here  and  there  its  scant,  stiff  shade  to  this  roomy 
adobe  dwelling,  with  its  warm  southern  frontage 
and  half-detached  wings.  Behind  the  house  irregu- 
lar out-buildings  are  scattered  about. 

A  commodious  corral,  now  the  distinguished 
residence  of  six  fine  Jersey  cows,  lies  between  the 
house  and  the  orchard,  —  a  not  over-flourishing 
collection  of  peach,  apricot,  and  plum  trees. 

Here  and  there  may  be  seen  wide  patches  of 
kitchen  garden,  carefully  intersected  by  irrigating 
ditches. 

Near  and  afar,  wide  alfalfa  fields  with  their  stiff 
aftermath  stretch  away  to  the  very  rim  of  the  mesa, 
where  the  cotton-tail  makes  his  home,  and  sage- 


l^^';,     ':  ALAMO   RANCH 

brush  and  mesquite  strike  root  in  the  meagre  soil. 
Cones  of  alfalfa  hay  stacked  here  and  there  out- 
line themselves  like  giant  beehives  against  the  soft 
blue  sky;  and  over  all  lies  the  sunny  silence  of  a 
cloudless  afternoon  with  its  smiling  westering  sun. 

Basking  in  this  grateful  warmth,  their  splint 
arm-chairs  idly  tilted  against  the  house-front,  the 
boarders  look  with  sated  invalid  eyes  upon  this 
gracious  landscape. 

Alamo  Ranch  is  a  health  resort.  In  this  thin, 
dry  air  of  Mesilla  Valley,  high  above  the  sea  level, 
the  consumptive  finds  his  Eldorado.  Hither,  year 
by  year,  come  these  foredoomed  children  of  men  to 
fight  for  breath,  putting  into  this  struggle  more 
noble  heroism  and  praiseworthy  courage  than  some- 
times goes  to  victory  in  battle-fields. 

Of  these  combatants  some  are  still  buoyed  by  the 
hope  of  recovery;  others  are  but  hopeless  mortals, 
with  the  single  sad  choice  of  eking  out  existence 
far  from  friends  and  home,  or  returning  to  native 
skies,  there  to  throw  up  hands  in  despair  and  suc- 
cumb to  the  foe. 

Sixteen  miles  away  the  Organ  Mountains  — 
seeming,  in  this  wonderfully  clear  atmosphere, 
within  but  a  stone's  throw  —  loom  superbly  against 
the  cloudless  sky;  great  hills  of  sand  are  these, 
surmounted  by  tall,  serrated  peaks  of  bare  rock, 
and  now  taking  on  their  afternoon  array  in  the 
ever-changing  light,  rare  marvels  of  shifting  color, 
—  amethyst  and  violet,  rosy  pink,  creamy  gold,  and 
dusky  purple. 

The  El  Paso  range  rises  sombrely  on  the  gray 
distance,  and  on  every  hand  detached  sugar-loaf 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO  3 

peaks  lend  their  magnificence  to  the  grand  mesa- 
range  that  cordons  the  Mesilla  Valley. 

And  now,  out  on  the  mesa,  at  first  but  a  speck 
between  the  loungers  on  the  piazza  and  the  dis- 
tant mountain  view,  a  single  pedestrian,  an  invalid 
sportsman,  comes  in  sight.  As  he  nears  the  ranch 
with  the  slowed  step  of  fatigue,  he  is  heartening 
himself  by  the  way  with  a  song.  When  the  lis- 
teners hear  the  familiar  tune,  —  it  is  "  Home,  Sweet 
Home,"  —  one  of  them  rallying  his  meagre  wind 
whistles  a  faint  accompaniment  to  the  chorus.  It 
is  not  a  success;  and  with  a  mirthless  laugh,  the 
whistler  abandons  his  poor  attempt,  and,  with  the 
big  lump  in  his  throat  swelling  to  a  sob,  rises  from 
his  chair  and  goes  dejectedly  in.  A  sympathetic 
chord  thrills  along  the  tilted  piazza  chairs. 

The  discomfited  whistler  is  but  newly  arrived  at 
Alamo;  and  his  feeble  step  and  weary,  hollow 
cough  predict  that  the  poor  fellow's  journey  will 
not  take  him  back  to  the  "  Sweet  Home  "  of  the 
song,  but  rather  to  the  uncharted  country. 

And  now  the  invalid  sportsman  steps  cheerily 
on  the  piazza. 

"  Here,  you  lazy  folks,"  mocks  he,  holding  high 
his  well-filled  game-bag,  "  behold  the  pigeon  stew 
for  your  supper ! "  And  good-naturedly  hailing  a 
Mexican  chore-boy,  lazily  propped  by  a  neighbor- 
ing poplar  trunk,  he  cries,  "  Catch ! "  and  deftly 
tossing  him  the  game  (pigeons  from  the  mesa) 
goes  in  to  put  away  his  gun.  When  later  he  re- 
turns to  the  piazza,  bathed  and  refreshed,  it  is  as 
if,  in  a  room  dim-lit  by  tallow  candles,  the  gas  had 
suddenly  been  turned  on  to  a  big  chandelier. 


4  ALAMO    RANCH 

Seating  himself  in  the  vacant  arm-chair,  he  fills 
a  briar-wood  pipe.  Some  of  the  loungers  do  like- 
wise; and  now,  while  they  smoke  and  chat,  look  at 
the  new-comer,  Leonard  Starr.  Though  not  robust, 
he  has  the  substantial  mien  and  bearing  of  one  who 
finds  it  good  to  live,  and  makes  those  about  him 
also  find  it  good.  It  is  not  long  before  most  of 
these  dispirited  loungers  are  laughing  at  his  lively 
stories  and  sallies,  and  cheerily  matching  them  with 
their  own. 

Well  is  it  for  this  troublous  world  of  ours  that 
some  of  its  children  are  "born  to  turn  the  sunny 
side  of  things  to  human  eyes." 


CHAPTER    II 

IT  is  the  middle  of  December ;  the  Alamo  boarders 
are  now  well  arrived. 

First  and  foremost,  Mr.  John  Morehouse  —  the 
one  lion  of  the  ranch  —  makes  his  bow.  He  is  con- 
spicuous for  his  able  research  in  Archaeology,  and 
among  his  fellow  boarders  is  familiarly  known  as 
"  the  Antiquary." 

Mr.  Morehouse  has  come  to  New  Mexico  in  the 
interest  of  science;  he  is  not,  however,  a  mere  dry- 
as-dust  collector  of  knowledge,  and  is  very  much 
inclined  to  unbend  himself  to  the  lighter  moods  and 
pursuits  of  his  less  scholarly  fellow-men. 

This  well-groomed,  handsome  man  of  forty  is 
James  Morley  of  Bangor. 

He  has  come  to  try  this  healing  air  for  a  slight, 
but  persistent,  lung  affection. 

Mr.  Morley  is  known  to  be  a  man  of  means,  with 
all  the  advantages  thus  implied;  but  all  the  same, 
he  is  given  to  railing  at  most  things  under  the  sun ; 
hence  by  the  boarders  he  is  surreptitiously  dubbed 
"  the  Grumbler."  Mr.  Morley's  growl  is  a  fore- 
gone conclusion,  and  one  may  safely  reckon  on  his 
bark ;  but  as  for  his  bite,  it  is  simply  nowhere. 

Already  he  has  manifested  a  most  considerate 
kindness  for  this  gray-eyed  little  lady  from  Marble- 
head,  Miss  Mattie  Norcross,  —  a  sweet-mannered. 


6  ALAMO    RANCH 

quiet  gentlewoman,  who  is  currently  reported  as 
scant  of  filthy  lucre,  and  hence  compelled  to  con- 
tent herself  with  a  cramped,  inexpensive  bedroom 
for  herself  and  her  invalid  sister,  who  has  one 
hopelessly  diseased  lung.  This  cheery-faced  Irish- 
man, who  with  his  shy  little  wife  is,  for  a  stub- 
bom  bronchial  trouble,  making  the  grand  tour 
of  the  world's  health  resorts,  and  is  now  trying 
New  Mexico,  is,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  a  Metho- 
dist minister.  His  name  is  Patrick  Haley.  It  may 
be  said  of  Mr.  Haley  that  he  has  the  genial  tem- 
perament indigenous  to  Green  Erin,  and  he  has 
already  won  golden  opinions  at  Alamo  Ranch  by 
the  considerate  brevity  of  his  grace  before  meat. 

Among  the  invalids  attended  by  their  wives  are 
Mr.  Bixbee,  from  Ohio,  and  Mr.  Fairlee,  from  New 
York  City. 

Mr.  Bixbee  has  been  bidden  by  his  medical  dic- 
tator to  repair  his  damaged  vitality  by  rest  and 
nourishing  food.  It  is  predicted  that  this  surfeited 
"  lunger,"  in  escaping  his  Scylla  of  consumption, 
bids  fair  to  strand  upon  the  Charybdis  of  liver  com- 
plaint, since  Mrs.  Bixbee,  in  her  wifely  zeal,  not 
only  plies  him  all  day  long  with  lunches,  but  makes 
night  hideous  by  the  administration  of  raw  eggs 
throughout  its  drowsy  hours. 

Mr.  Roger  Smith,  an  over-worked  Harvard  ath- 
lete, is  taking  as  a  restorative  a  lazy  winter  in  this 
restful  land.  He  has  also  other  irons  in  the  fire,  of 
which,  later,  we  shall  hear  more.  Roger  Smith  is 
known  in  Boston  society  as  one  having  heaps  of 
money,  but  badly  off  for  pedigree.  All  the  same, 
he   is,   in   manner  and   appearance,   a   gentleman, 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO  7 

and  has  distinctly  the  hall-mark  of  Beacon  Hill. 
He  is  here  known  as  the  "  Harvard  man." 

Also,  among  the  sound-lunged  invalids,  is  Mr. 
Harry  Warren,  a  brilliant  Chicago  journalist.  Mr. 
Warren  is  taking  a  vacation  in  Mesilla  Valley, 
where  he  is  said  to  be  collecting  material  for  future 
articles,  and  possibly  for  a  book. 

The  Browns  have  also  two  table-boarders  from 
Boston,  —  Miss  Paulina  Hemmenshaw  and  her 
beautiful  niece,  Louise,  a  superbly  healthy  brunette. 
Their  friend,  Mr.  Henry  Hilton,  during  an  absence 
abroad,  has  lent  for  the  winter  to  these  ladies  his 
toy  ranch,  with  its  aesthetically  fashioned  dwelling- 
house. 

The  Hemmenshaws  dine  and  sup  at  Alamo 
Ranch,  and  the  aunt,  a  cooking-school  graduate,  is 
known  to  make  at  Hilton  Ranch  for  herself  and 
niece  wonderful  blazer  breakfasts,  consisting  mainly 
of  dishes  new-fangled  of  name,  and  eminently  try- 
ing to  mortal  digestion.  There  are,  besides,  some 
half-dozen  male  lungers  unaccompanied  by  friends ; 
and  two  impecunious  invalids  to  whom  the  kind- 
hearted  landlord,  George  Brown,  allows  bed  and 
board  in  return  for  light-choring  about  the  ranch. 
These  latter  are  democratically  counted  in  with  the 
dining-room  boarders. 

Leon  Starr,  by  common  consent  the  "  star 
boarder  "  of  Alamo  Ranch,  has  already  been  pre- 
sented to  the  reader.  He  has  taken  the  large  two- 
windowed  room  on  the  ground-floor  commanding 
a  glorious  view  of  the  distant  Organ  Mountains. 
After  getting  his  breath  in  this  unaccustomed  alti- 
tude, Leon^s  next  care  has  been  for  the  depressed 


8  ALAMO    RANCH 

lungers  who  daily  gather  on  the  boarding-house 
piazza  and  wonder  if  life  is  still  worth  living.  To 
get  them  outside  themselves  by  cheery  good-fellow- 
ship, to  perform  for  them  little  homely  services,  not 
much  in  the  telling,  but  making  their  lives  a  world 
easier,  has  been  a  part  of  his  method  for  uplifting 
their  general  tone. 

Of  an  inventive  turn  of  mind,  and  an  amateur 
mechanic,  he  has  brought  with  him  a  tiny  tool 
chest ;  and  it  soon  becomes  the  family  habit  to  look 
to  Leon  Starr  for  general  miscellaneous  tinkering, 
as  the  mending  of  door  and  trunk  locks,  the  regu- 
lating watches  and  clocks,  the  adjustment  of  the 
bedevilled  sewing-machine  of  their  good  landlady, 
and  the  restoration  of  harmonious  working  to  all 
disgruntled  mechanical  gear,  from  garret  to  cellar. 
He  it  is  who,  on  rainy  days,  manufactures  denim 
clothes-bags  for  clumsy-fingered  fellows;  who 
fashions  from  common  canes  gathered  on  banks 
of  irrigating  ditches,  photo-frames  for  everybody, 
and  shows  them  how  to  arrange  the  long  cane  tas- 
sels with  decorative  effect  above  door  and  window, 
and  how  to  soften  the  glare  of  kerosene  lamps  by 
making  for  them  relieving  shades  of  rose-colored 
paper. 

Pessimistic  indeed  is  that  lunger  who,  succumb- 
ing to  the  charm  of  this  gracious  nature,  does  not 
feel  the  cheery  lift  in  his  heavy  atmosphere. 

From  the  landlord  and  his  wife,  both  worn  by 
the  strain  of  doing  their  best  for  chronically  dis- 
contented people,  down  to  Fang  Lee,  the  Chinese 
chef,  Dennis  Kearney,  the  table- waiter,  the  over- 
worked Mexican  house-maids,  and  the  two  native 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO  9 

chore-boys  —  one  and  all  rise  up  to  call  the  star 
boarder  blessed. 

Out  on  the  mesa  the  air  is  finer  and  brighter 
than  on  the  lower  plane  of  the  ranch,  and  full  of 
the  life  and  stir  of  moving  things,  —  quail,  rabbits, 
and  doves. 

Leon  had  at  first  found  the  thin  air  of  this 
altitude  somewhat  difficult;  but  since  time  and  use 
have  accustomed  his  lungs  to  these  novel  atmos- 
pheric conditions,  shooting  on  the  mesa  has  be- 
come a  part  of  his  daily  programme,  and  his  quail, 
rabbits,  and  pigeons  prove  a  toothsome  contribu- 
tion to  the  already  excellent  ranch  table. 

A  small,  shy  Mexican  herd-boy,  pasturing  his 
lean  goats  on  the  mesa,  gradually  makes  friends 
with  the  tall,  kindly  sportsman.  As  they  have  be- 
tween them  but  these  two  mutually  intelligible 
words,  bueno  (good)  dLiid  mucho  calor  (very  warm), 
their  conversation  is  circumscribed.  Kind  deeds 
are,  however,  more  to  the  point  than  words,  and 
go  without  the  saying;  and  when  Leon  instructed 
the  ragged  herd-boy  in  the  use  of  his  bow,  and 
made  and  weighted  his  arrows  for  him,  he  under- 
stood, and  became  his  devoted  henchman,  follow- 
ing in  his  path  all  through  the  week-day  tramps, 
and  on  Sundays  coming  to  the  ranch  with  clean 
face  and  hands  to  adore  his  fetich,  and  watch,  with 
admiring  eyes,  his  novel  works  and  ways. 


CHAPTER   III 

AFTER  a  protracted  interval  of  tranquil  sun- 
shine, a  stormy  wind  came  blustering  from 
the  west,  bringing  to  Mesilla  Valley,  in  its  wintry 
train,  sunless  days,  light  flurries  of  snow,  and  gen- 
eral dreariness. 

The  boarders,  weather-bound  and  dull,  grew  sul- 
lenly mutinous;  and  on  the  third  of  these  stormy 
days,  gathering  in  the  ranch  parlor  after  the  mid- 
day meal,  their  discontent  found  vent  in  banning 
right  and  left  this  "  land  of  sun,  silence,  and 
adobe." 

"  Beastly  weather ! "  muttered  the  Grumbler, 
drawing  into  the  stove  with  a  discontented  shiver. 

"  A  precious  sample,  this,  of  your  fine  climate. 
Brown,"  jeered  Bixbee,  turning  mockingly  to  the 
disheartened  landlord,  who,  reckless  of  expense, 
commanded  of  the  chore-boy  fresh  relays  of  fuel, 
and  incontinently  crammed  the  parlor  air-tight, 
already  red-hot. 

"  I  say,  fellows,"  drolled  the  Harvard  man,  "let 's 
make  tracks  for  Boston,  and  round  up  the  winter 
with  furnace  heat  and  unlimited  water  privileges, 
as  the  house-broker  has  it." 

"  And  with  cut-throat  plumbers  thrown  in,"  sug- 
gested the  Grumbler  with  a  malicious  grin. 

"  See  here,  you  folks,  draw  it  mild,"  laughed  the 
star  boarder,  crossing  the  room  with  a  finger  be- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO         ii 

tween  the  leaves  of  a  volume  which  he  had  been 
reading  by  the  dim  afternoon  light  of  this  lowering 
day.  "  Here,  now,  is  something  that  fits  your  case 
to  a  T.  Let  me  read  you  how  they  doctored  your 
complaint  in  these  parts,  aeons  before  you  were 
born." 

"  Anything  for  a  change,"  muttered  Bixbee,  and, 
with  the  general  consent,  Leon  read  the  following: 

"  *  When  the  people  came  out  of  the  cold,  dark 
womb  of  the  underworld,  then  the  great  sun  rose 
in  the  heavens.  In  it  dwelt  Payatuma,  making  his 
circuit  of  the  world  in  a  day  and  a  night.  He  saw 
that  the  day  was  light  and  warm,  the  night  dark 
and  cold.  Hence  there  needed  to  be  both  summer 
and  winter  people. 

"  *  He  accordingly  apportioned  some  of  each  to 
every  tribe  and  clan,  and  thus  it  is  down  to  the 
present  day.  Then  those  above  (that  is,  the  Sun- 
father  and  the  Moon-mother),  mindful  lest  the 
people  on  their  long  journey  to  the  appointed  abid- 
ing-place succumb  to  weariness  and  fall  by  the 
way,  made  for  them  a  koshare,  a  delight-maker. 
His  body  was  painted  in  diagonal  sections  of  black 
and  white,  and  his  head,  in  lieu  of  the  regulation 
feather-decorations,  was  fantastically  arrayed  in 
withered  corn-leaves. 

"  *  This  koshare  began  at  once  to  dance  and 
tumble.  Then  the  people  laughed,  and  were  glad. 
And  ever  from  that  day,  in  their  wanderings  in 
search  of  a  satisfactory  settling-place  in  the  solid 
centre  of  the  big  weary  world,  the  koshare  led  them 
bravely  and  well. 

"  '  He  it  was  who  danced  and  jested  to  make 


12  ALAMO    RANCH 

happiness  among  the  people.  His  it  was  to  smile 
on  the  planted  maize  till  it  sprouted  and  flowered 
in  the  fertile  bottoms,  to  beam  joyously  on  the 
growing  fruit,  that  it  might  ripen  in  its  season. 

"  '  From  that  day  there  have  been  delight-makers 
in  all  the  Pueblo  tribes.  The  koshare  became  in 
time  with  them  an  organization,  as  the  Free-masons, 
or  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  with  us.  This  neces- 
sity, we  are  told,  arose  from  the  fact  that  among 
the  Pueblos  there  were  summer  people  who  enjoy 
the  sunshine,  and  winter  people,  —  people  who  de- 
terminedly prefer  to  live  in  the  dark  and  cold.' 

"  Is  it  not  so,"  said  Leon,  turning  down  a  leaf 
and  closing  his  book,  "  with  every  people  on  the 
face  of  the  earth? 

"  Is  not  the  *  delight-maker,'  —  the  koshare,  — 
under  various  names  and  guises,  still  in  demand? 
It  has  struck  me,"  continued  he,  looking  quizzi- 
cally at  this  disgruntled  assemblage,  "  that  the 
koshare  might  be  an  acceptable  addition  to  our 
despondent  circle." 

"  Amen ! "  fervently  responded  the  Methodist 
minister. 

"  Right  you  are,"  said  the  Harvard  man.  "  Write 
me  as  one  who  approves  the  koshare !  " 

"  Yes !  yes !  "  eagerly  exclaimed  approving  voices. 
"  Let  us  have  the  koshare  here  and  at  once !  " 

"A  capital  move,"  said  Miss  Paulina  Hemmen- 
shaw  (born  and  reared  in  the  climatic  belt  of  club- 
dom, and  regent  of  a  Chapter  of  Daughters  of  the 
Revolution) .     "  Let  us  have  a  Koshare  Club." 

"  Good ! "  echoed  Mrs.  Fairlee,  among  her  in- 
timates surnamed   "  the  Pourer,"   because  of  her 


A    STORY    OF   NEW    MEXICO         13 

amiable  readiness  to  undertake  for  her  friends  the 
helpful  office  that  among  afternoon  tea-circles  has 
been  distinguished  by  that  name.  "  We  might  give 
afternoon  teas  to  the  members." 

"  And  why  not  have  recitations,  with  humorous 
selections  ? "  bashfully  suggested  the  gray-eyed 
school-mistress,  who  rejoiced  in  a  fine-toned  voice 
and  in  a  diploma  from  the  School  of  Oratory. 

"  Yes,  indeed ;  and  music,  acting,  and  dancing, 
and  all  manner  of  high  jinks,"  exclaimed  Miss 
Louise,  who,  an  accomplished  musician,  and  dis- 
tinguished for  her  amateur  acting,  with  her  superb 
health  and  unfailing  flow  of  spirits,  might  be 
counted  in  as  a  born  koshare. 

"  And  we  might  unite  improvement  with  diver- 
sion, and  have,  now  and  then,  a  lecture,  to  give 
interest  to  our  club,"  suggested  Mrs.  Bixbee;  and 
here  she  looked  significantly  at  Mr.  Morehouse, 
"  the  Antiquary,"  who  as  a  lecturer  was  not  un- 
known to  fame. 

"  Lectures,"  observed  the  Minister,  "  though  not 
strictly  kosharean,  would  be  highly  entertaining, 
and  we  can,  no  doubt,  count  upon  our  friend,  Mr. 
Morehouse,  to  give  us  the  result  of  some  of  his  re- 
search in  Mexican  Antiquities." 

The  Antiquary,  with  a  smile,  accepted  the  part 
assigned  him  by  his  fellow-boarder.  Here  the 
boarders  went  to  supper,  after  which  the  more 
sleepy  sought  their  beds.  The  evening  blew 
stormily  in;  but,  gathered  about  the  centre  table 
in  the  warm  parlor,  the  leading  spirits  of  Alamo 
Ranch  bade  the  storm  go  by,  while  they  inaugu- 
rated the  Club  of  The  New  Koshare. 


14  ALAMO    RANCH 

The  star  boarder  was  chosen  president.  The 
Minister  was  elected  vice-president,  Miss  Paulina 
secretary,  and  the  Harvard  man  treasurer.  These 
preliminaries  well  arranged,  a  programme  was 
voted  on,  and  by  general  approval  carried. 

Mrs.  Fairlee  —  the  Pourer  —  was  to  give  to  the 
club-members  a  weekly  afternoon  tea.  An  enter- 
tainment open  to  the  entire  household  was,  on  every 
Thursday  evening,  to  be  given  in  the  ranch  dining- 
room  by  the  Koshare,  consisting  of  music,  tableaux, 
and  recitations.  A  shooting-match,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Leon,  was  to  come  off  weekly  on  the  grounds 
of  the  establishment.  There  should  be  among  the 
clubbists  a  fund  collected  for  magazines;  and  on 
fortnightly  Saturday  evenings  Mr.  Morehouse 
promised  to  give  them  lectures,  the  result  of  his 
antiquarian  researches  in  Mexico,  New  and  Old; 
and  during  this  course  papers  and  talks  relating 
to  this  subject  should  supplement  his  own. 

"  The  Pueblo,"  commented  the  Grumbler,  "would 
not  have  found  magazines  strikingly  kosharean ;  let 
us  by  all  means  have  them,"  and  suiting  deed  to 
word,  he  subscribed  to  the  book-fund  on  the  spot, 
and  paid  surreptitiously  the  subscription  of  the  little 
school-ma'am,  who  had  previously  withdrawn  in 
the  interest  of  her  invalid  sister. 

In  this  fashion  was  inaugurated  "  The  New  Ko- 
share "  of  Mesilla  Valley ;  thereafter  the  Hemmen- 
shaws  bundled  themselves  in  winter  wraps  and, 
handed  into  their  vehicle  by  the  Harvard  man,  set 
out  in  the  storm  for  their  ride  to  Hilton  Ranch,  and 
the  Koshare  betook  themselves  to  rest. 


CHAPTER   IV 

ON  the  morrow  the  sun  shone  warm  and  bright, 
and  on  the  mesa,  and  on  all  the  desert-stretches 
of  mesquite  and  sage-brush,  on  the  broad  alfalfa 
fields  and  outlying  acres  of  Alamo  Ranch,  there 
was  no  longer  a  flake  of  snow. 

Early  in  this  sunny  day  the  star  boarder  and  the 
Pourer,  driven  by  a  leisurely  chore-boy,  might  have 
been  seen  taking  their  way  to  Las  Cruces,  the  near- 
est village  and  postal  centre,  intent  on  the  procure- 
ment of  sundry  wafers,  biscuit,  and  other  edibles 
pertaining  to  an  afternoon  tea. 

El  Paso,  the  Texan  border-town,  some  forty 
miles  distant,  is  properly  the  emporium  of  that  re- 
gion. Between  it  and  Las  Cruces  lies  a  stretch  of 
desert  more  barrenly  forlorn  than  the  Long  Island 
pine-lands,  since  it  is  totally  void  of  forest  growth, 
and  has  but  here  and  there  a  sprinkle  of  mesquite- 
bushes  about  three  feet  in  height,  the  rest  being 
bare  sand-ridges. 

At  El  Paso  one  may  ride  in  street  cars,  luxuriate 
in  rain-proof  dwellings,  lighted  by  electricity,  and 
pretty  with  lawns  and  flower-pots.  But  even  at  its 
best,  modern  civilization,  with  its  push  and  bustle, 
ill  becomes  the  happy-go-lucky  native  Mexican 
sunning  himself  in  lazy  content  against  the  adobe 
of  his  shiftily  built  dwelling. 


i6  ALAMO    RANCH 

In  a  land  of  well-nigh  perpetual  blue  sky,  why 
need  mortal  man  scramble  to  make  hay  while  the 
sun  shines?  Yesterday  has  already  taken  care  of 
itself.  To-day  is  still  here,  and  always  there  is 
manana  —  to-morrow. 

As  for  our  own  upstart  civilization,  in  this  clime 
of  ancient  Pueblo  refinements  one  must  own  that  it 
takes  on  the  color  of  an  impertinence,  and  as  incon- 
gruously exhibits  itself  as  a  brand-new  patch  on  a 
long-worn  garment. 

But  to  return  to  Las  Cruces,  which  is  "  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  made."  To  look  at  the  houses  one 
might  well  fancy  that  the  pioneer  settlers  had  folded 
their  hands  and  prayed  for  dwellings,  and  when  the 
answering  shower  of  mud  and  adobe  fell,  had  con- 
tentedly left  it  where  it  stuck.  All  these  structures 
are  one-storied,  and  square-built;  each  has  its  one 
door,  a  window  or  two,  and  a  dumpy  roof,  fashioned 
for  the  most  part  of  wattles,  for,  as  it  seldom  rains 
here,  the  Las  Crucean  has  no  troublesome  prejudice 
in  favor  of  water-tight  roofs.  When  the  sun  shines 
he  is  all  right;  and  when  it  rains,  he  simply  moves 
from  under  the  drip.  Here,  among  confectionery 
that  had  long  since  outlived  its  desirability,  among 
stale  baker's  cookies  and  flinty  ginger  snaps,  the 
Koshare  commissariat  foraged  discouragedly  for 
the  afternoon  tea. 

Duly  supplied  with  these  time-honored  sweets, 
Leon  and  the  Pourer,  thus  indifferently  provisioned, 
turned  their  faces  homeward,  at  such  moderate  pace 
as  seemed  good  in  the  eyes  of  an  easy-going  Mexi- 
can pony  and  his  lazy  Indian  driver. 

On  the  afternoon  of  that  day  Mrs.  Bixbee,  in  her 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO         17 

airy  bed-chamber,  where  the  folding-bed  in  the  day- 
time masqueraded  as  a  black  walnut  bookcase,  gave 
the  first  Koshare  afternoon  tea. 

Mrs.  Fairlee  poured  from  a  real  Russian  Sam- 
ovar brought  over  from  the  Hilton  Ranch  for  this 
grand  occasion.  Somewhat  to  the  general  surprise, 
the  Grtmibler  made  his  bow  to  the  hostess  in  even- 
ing clothes,  and  though  not  exuberantly  Koshare, 
he  was  in  an  unwontedly  gracious  mood ;  partaking 
with  polite  zest  of  the  stale  chocolates,  tough 
cookies,  and  flinty  ginger  snaps;  munching  long- 
baked  Albert  biscuit;  serenely  bolting  puckery 
Oolong  tea ;  and  even  handing  the  cups,  —  large 
and  substantial  ones,  kindly  furnished  from  their 
landlady's  pantry, — and  commending  their  solidity 
and  size  as  far  preferable  to  the  Dresden  and  Jap- 
anese "  thimbles "  commonly  appearing  on  after- 
noon tea-tables.  As  for  the  Pourer,  it  must  be 
recorded  that  her  grace,  facility,  and  charm  of 
manner  gave  even  stone  china  tea-cups  an  air  of 
distinction,  and  lent  to  Oolong  tea  and  stale  cakes 
a  flavor  of  refinement.  It  was  on  Monday  that  this 
function  came  off  successfully. 

The  next  Koshare  festivity  in  regular  order  was 
the  shooting-match. 

Leon,  who  had  inherited  from  some  Nimrod  of 
his  race,  long  since  turned  to  dust,  that  true  eye 
and  steady  hand  which  make  gunning  a  success, 
was  here  master  of  ceremonies  as  well  as  contrib- 
utor of  prizes. 

The  first  of  these,  a  pair  of  gold  sleeve-links,  he, 
himself,  easily  won,  and  subsequently  donated  to 
Dennis  the  dudish  table- waiter.    Of  the  five  prizes, 


i8  ALAMO    RANCH 

two  others  were  won  by  the  two  impecunious 
lungers,  one  by  the  Harvard  man,  and  another  by 
the  Antiquary.  The  shooting-match,  enjoyed  as 
it  was  by  the  near  population  of  Mesilla  Valley, 
proved  a  big  success,  and  weekly  grew  in  grace 
with  the  aborigines  as  having  a  fine  flavor  of  circus 
shows  and  Mexican  bull-fights,  and  was  considered 
by  the  Koshare  as  one  of  their  happiest  hits. 

Equally  successful  was  the  Thursday  entertain- 
ment, held  in  the  big  dining-room,  under  the 
auspices  of  the  landlord  and  his  wife,  with  the  cook, 
waiter,  maids,  and  chore-boys  gathered  about  the 
open  door. 

It  consisted  of  vocal  and  instrumental  music,  and 
recitations  in  prose  and  rhyme;  and,  at  a  late  hour, 
wound  up  with  a  bountiful  supper  contributed  to 
the  occasion  by  the  generous  landlord. 

Miss  Hemmenshaw,  the  star  performer,  gave, 
with  admirable  Rachelesque  gesture  and  true  dra- 
matic fire,  "  The  Widow  of  the  Grand  Army,"  re- 
cited with  exquisite  delicacy  Shelley's  "Cloud,"  and 
sent  shivers  down  the  backs  of  the  entire  assem- 
blage, by  a  realistic  presentation  of  Rossetti's 
"  Sister  Helen."  The  grey-eyed  school-marm  re- 
cited with  genuine  "  School  of  Oratory  "  precision 
and  finish  "  Barbara  Frietchie,"  Holmes'  "  Cham- 
bered Nautilus,"  Longfellow's  "  Sandalphon,"  and 
"  Tom  O'Connor's  Cat."  Leon  read,  with  admi- 
rable humor,  some  of  Mr.  Dooley's  best;  and  the 
Harvard  man  brought  down  the  house  with  Kip- 
ling's "  Truce  of  the  Bear." 

There  was  some  fine  piano  and  banjo  playing, 
and    the    singing    of    duets;     and    the    Journalist 


A    STORY   OF    NEW    MEXICO         19 

rendered,  in  his  exquisite  tenor,  Ben  Jonson's 
rare  old  love-song,  "  Drink  to  me  only  with  thine 
eyes." 

"  Strange,"  commented  the  Antiquary  (who  in 
his  miscellaneous  mental  storage  had  found  room 
for  some  fine  old  Elizabethan  plays),  turning  to 
Miss  Hemmenshaw  in  the  pause  of  the  song,  "  Ben 
Jonson  is  dust  these  three  hundred  years,  and  still 
his  verses  come  singing  down  the  ages,  keeping  in- 
tact their  own  immortal  flavor.  The  song-maker's' 
is,  indeed,  an  art  that  *  smells  sweet,  and  blossoms 
in  the  dust.'  Well  might  they  write  him,  *  O  rare 
Ben  Jonson.'  " 

"  And  how  exquisitely,"  responded  the  lady,  "  is 
the  air  married  to  the  words!  "  And  now  the  Min- 
ister brought  forward  his  Cremona.  He  was  a 
finished  violinist,  with  a  touch  that  well-nigh 
amounted  to  genius.  All  praised  his  performance. 
At  its  close  the  Grumbler,  in  an  aside  to  the  An- 
tiquary, thus  delivered  himself :  — 

"  To  some,  God  giveth  common-sense;  to  others, 
to  play  the  fiddle!" 

From  the  entry  audience  the  fiddler  won  rousing 
rounds  of  applause,  and  Dennis,  the  waiter,  ven- 
tured on  the  subdued  shuffle  of  an  Irish  jig. 

This  it  was  that  suggested  to  the  Koshare  an  im- 
promptu dance,  and  thereupon  the  young  people 
straightway  took  the  floor.  The  Minister,  kindly 
oblivious  of  his  cloth,  fiddled  on;  Miss  Paulina 
called  off  the  figures,  and  so,  merrily,  ended  the 
first  Koshare  evening  entertainment. 


CHAPTER   V 

AS  it  is  not  proposed  to  give  this  record  of  the 
doings  of  the  "  New  Koshare "  the  circum- 
stantiality of  a  diary,  the  chronicler  may  be  allowed 
to  include  the  ensuing  teas,  shooting-matches,  and 
all  the  lighter  kosharean  festivities  in  the  one 
general  and  final  statement,  that  they  each  came 
off  duly  and  successfully;  and  leaving  their  details 
"  unhonored  and  unsung,"  proceed  to  a  more  ex- 
tended account  of  the  Saturday  evening  entertain- 
ments,—  as  all  members  of  the  club  were  invited 
to  contribute  to  these  evenings,  and  it  was  expected 
that  the  Minister  would,  from  the  storehouse  of 
his  travelling  experience,  contribute  liberally  to 
their  delectability ;  and  that  the  Journalist  (who 
naturally  thought  in  paragraphs,  and,  like  the  fairy 
who  "  spoke  pearls,"  conversed  in  exquisitely 
fashioned  sentences)  would  supplement  the  papers 
of  the  Antiquary  by  his  own  brilliant  talks. 

And  so  it  was  that  on  the  initial  Saturday  even- 
ing, with  a  full  attendance  and  great  expectations, 
the  Koshare  found  themselves  convened,  the  presi- 
dent in  the  chair,  the  secretary  with  notebook  in 
hand,  and  all  in  dignified  attention. 

The  Antiquary  —  with  this  apt  quotation  from 
Cumming's  "  Land  of  Poco  Tiempo  "  —  began  his 
first  lecture  before  the  club. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        21 

"  'New  Mexico/  "  quoted  he,  "  *is  the  anomaly  of 
the  Republic.  It  is  a  century  older  in  European 
civilization  than  the  rest,  and  several  centuries  older 
still  in  a  happier  semi-civilization  of  its  own.  It 
had  its  little  walled  cities  of  stone  before  Columbus 
had  grandparents-to-be;  and  it  has  them  yet.' 

"  There  are,"  stated  Mr.  Morehouse,  "  three 
typical  races  in  New  Mexico.  The  American  in- 
terpolation does  not  count  as  a  type. 

"  Of  Pueblo  Indians  there  are  nine  thousand, 
*  peaceful,  home-loving,  and  home-dwelling  tillers 
of  the  soil.'  Then,  here,  and  in  Arizona,  there  are 
about  twenty  thousand  Navajo  Indians,  —  nomad, 
horse-loving,  horse-stealing  vagrants  of  the  saddle, 
modern  Centaurs.  Then  come  the  Apaches,  an 
uncounted  savage  horde,  whose  partial  civilization 
has  been  effected  by  sheer  force  of  arms,  and  inch 
by  inch :  who  accept  the  reservation  with  but  half 
a  heart,  and  break  bounds  at  every  opportunity. 
Last  of  all  come  the  Mexicans,  shrunken  de- 
scendants of  the  Castilian  world-finders;  living 
almost  as  much  against  the  house  as  in  it;  igno- 
rant as  slaves,  and  more  courteous  than  kings; 
poor  as  Lazarus,  and  more  hospitable  than  Croesus ; 
and  Catholics  from  A  to  izzard. 

"  The  Navajos  and  Apaches,"  said  Mr.  More- 
house, "  have  neither  houses  nor  towns ;  the 
Pueblos  have  nineteen  compact  little  cities,  and  the 
Mexicans  several  hundred  villages,  a  part  of  which 
are  shared  by  the  invader. 

"  *  The  numerous  sacred  dances  of  the  Pueblos,' 
says  Cummings,  *  are  by  far  the  most  picturesque 
sights  in  America,  and  the  least  viewed  by  Ameri- 


22  ALAMO    RANCH 

cans,  who  never  found  anything  more  striking 
abroad.  The  mythology  of  Greece  and  Rome  is 
less  than  theirs  in  complicated  comprehensiveness; 
and  they  are  a  far  more  interesting  ethnological 
study  than  the  tribes  of  inner  Africa,  and  less 
known  of  by  their  white  countrymen/ 

"  The  Pueblos  of  New  Mexico,"  explained  the 
Antiquary,  "  are  by  no  means  to  be  confounded 
with  the  Toltecs  or  Aztecs.  It  is,  however,  barely 
possible  that  in  prehistoric  ages  the  race  in  pos- 
session of  Mexico  may  have  had  some  tribal  char- 
acteristics of  the  latter-day  Pueblo.  As  of  that 
remote  time,  there  is  not  even  a  traditionary  record ; 
this  supposition  is  absolutely  conjectural. 

"  By  investigation  and  comparison  it  has,  how- 
ever, been  proved  that  the  Pueblos  have  racial  char- 
acteristics connecting  them  with  some  mysterious 
stage  of  human  life  even  older  than  that  of  the 
more  barbarous  Toltecs  or  Aztecs. 

"  This  race  has  from  time  immemorial  had  its 
book  of  Genesis.  It  is  not,  like  that  of  the  Hebrew, 
a  written  record,  but  has  been  orally  handed  down, 
and  with  careful  precision,  beginning  with  their 
original  emergence,  as  half-formed  human  beings, 
from  the  dark  of  the  mystic  underworld  of  *  Shi- 
papu '  to  the  world  of  light. 

"  After  the  fashion  of  most  barbarous  races,  the 
Pueblo  appears  originally  to  have  *  pitched  his  mov- 
ing tent '  in  various  parts  of  Mexico ;  and  it  may 
be  inferred  that  he  endured  many  casual ities  be- 
fore settling  himself  in  life.  It  was  to  tide  over 
this  trying  epoch  in  his  existence  that  '  Those 
Above,'  according  to  tradition,  made  for  the  tribes 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        23 

that  quaint  *  Delight-Monger/  with  whom  we 
have  already  made  acquaintance,  who  led  them  in 
their  wanderings  from  the  womb  of  Shipapu  to 
the  solid  centre  of  their  world;  but,  as  has  been 
already  stated,  this  record,  going  back  to  an 
indefinite  period  of  time,  and  having  only  the 
dubious  authority  of  folk-lore,  is  only  of  tradi- 
tional value. 

"  The  Pueblo,  no  less  than  the  Aztec,  is  the  most 
religious  of  Human  beings.  His  ceremonial,  like 
that  of  the  age  of  Montezuma,  is  wonderfully  and 
minutely  elaborated;  and  though  originating  in 
a  civilization  less  splendid  and  refined,  it  is  really 
less  barbarous,  since  its  rites  have  never,  like  those 
of  the  Aztec,  included  the  horrors  of  human  sacri- 
fice and  cannibalism. 

"  The  Pueblo,  since  his  exit  from  the  womb  of 
mother  Earth,  seems  to  have  given  his  principal 
attention  to  the  cultivation  of  its  soil.  All  the 
same,  he  appears  never  to  have  shirked  the  less 
peaceful  responsibilities  of  his  tribe,  —  putting  on 
his  war-paint  at  the  shortest  notice,  to  settle  the 
quarrels  of  his  clan. 

"  Although  like  most  men  of  savage  birth  and 
breeding,  cruel  in  warfare,  he  seems  never  to  have 
been  abstractedly  blood-thirsty,  never  to  have 
killed,  like  his  ever-belligerent  neighbor,  the 
Apache,  purely  for  killing's  sake;  but,  his  quarrel 
once  ended,  and  the  present  security  of  his  clan 
well  achieved,  he  has  contentedly  returned  to  the 
peaceful  ways  of  life;  diligently  sowing,  weed- 
ing, and  harvesting  his  crops  of  maize,  melons, 
squashes,   and  beans,   and  —  ever  mindful  of  the 


24  ALAMO    RANCH 

propitiative  requirements  of  *  Those  Above  *  — 
taking  careful  heed  of  his  religious  duties. 

"  For  a  succinct  account  of  the  Pueblo  cave  (or 
cliff)  dwellers,"  said  the  Antiquary,  "  I  am  largely 
indebted  to  Bandelier,  from  whose  valuable  Pueblo 
researches  I  shall  often  take  the  liberty  to  quote.  " 

"  The  imperfectly  explored  mountain  range  skirt- 
ing the  Rio  Grande  del  Norte  is  picturesquely 
grand. 

"  Facing  the  river,  the  foundation  of  the  chain  is 
entirely  volcanic. 

"  Colossal  rocks  form  the  abrupt  walls  of  the 
gorges  between  these  mountains,  and  are  often  so 
soft  and  friable  that,  in  many  places  they  were 
easily  scooped  out  with  the  most  primitive  tools, 
or  even  detached  with  the  fingers  alone. 

"  In  these  gorges,  through  many  of  which  run 
unfailing  streams  of  water,  often  expanding  to  the 
proportions  of  regular  valleys,  the  Pueblo  Indian 
raised  the  modest  crop  that  satisfied  his  vegetable 
craving. 

"As  it  is  easier  to  excavate  dwellings  than  to 
pile  up  walls  in  the  open  air,  the  aboriginal  Mexi- 
can's house-building  effort  was  mostly  confined  to 
underground  construction.  He  was,  in  fact,  a 
*  cave-dweller,'  yet  infinitely  of  more  advanced 
architectural  ideas  than  our  own  remote  forbears 
of  Anglo  Saxon  cave-dwelling  times. 

"  Most  of  these  residences  might  boast  of  from 
three  to  four  rooms.  They  were  arranged  in 
groups,  or  clusters,  and  some  of  them  were  several 
stories  high. 

"  Rude  ladders  were  used  for  mounting  to  the 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        25 

terrace  or  roof  of  each  successive  story.  The 
Pueblo  had,  literally,  a  hearthstone  in  his  primitive 
home.  His  fireplace  was  supplied  with  a  hearth  of 
pumice-stone.  A  rudely  built  flue,  made  of  ce- 
mented rubble,  led  to  a  circular  opening  in  the  front 
wall  of  his  cave-dwelling.  Air-holes  admitted  their 
scanty  light  to  these  dusky  apartments,  in  which 
there  were  not  only  conveniences  for  bestowing 
wearing-apparel,  but  niches  for  ornamental  pottery, 
precious  stones,  and  the  like  Indian  bric-a-brac. 
The  ground-floor  entrance  was  a  rude  doorway 
closed  by  a  hide,  or  mat.  Plaited  mats  of  Yucca 
leaves,  and  deer-hide,  by  day  rolled  up  in  corners 
of  the  sleeping-apartments,  served  for  mattresses 
at  night.  A  thick  coating  of  mud,  washed  with 
blood,  and  carefully  smoothed,  gave  to  the  floor  a 
glossy  effect.  Some  of  the  rooms  are  known  to 
have  been  in  dimension  ten  feet  by  fourteen.  Their 
walls  were  whitewashed  with  burnt  gypsum. 

"  Though  the  time  when  these  traditional  cliff- 
dwellers  wooed  and  wed,  lived  and  died  in  the 
Rialto  vale  is  long,  long  gone  by,  the  ruins  of  their 
homes  may  still  be  seen.  Some  of  them  are  tol- 
erably intact;  others  are  crumbled  away  to  mere 
shapeless  ruins. 

"  And  now,  having  described  their  dwellings,  let 
us  note  some  of  the  most  marked  and  interesting 
characteristics  of  the  men  and  women  who  made  in 
them  their  homes. 

"  We  are  apt,"  said  the  Antiquary,  "  to  accord 
to  our  more  enlightened  civilization  the  origin  of 
communism;  yet,  antedating  by  ages  our  latter- 
day  socialistic  fads,  the  communal  idea  enthused 


26  ALAMO   RANCH 

this  unlettered  people,  and  to  a  certain  extent 
seems  to  have  been  successfully  carried  out. 

"  Let  not  the  strong-minded  Anglo-Saxon 
woman  plume  herself  upon  the  discovery  of  the 
equality  of  the  sexes.  While  our  own  female 
suffragists  were  yet  unborn,  the  Pueblo  wife  had 
been  accorded  the  inalienable  right  to  lord  it  over 
her  mankind. 

"  Among  the  Mexican  cliff-dwellers,  *  woman's 
rights  *  seem  to  have  been  as  indigenous  to  the 
soil  as  the  pinon  and  the  prickly  pear. 

**  In  the  primitive  Pueblo  domicile,  the  wife  ap- 
pears, by  tribal  consent,  to  have  been  absolutely 
*  cock  of  the  walk.'  The  husband  had  no  rights 
as  owner  or  proprietor  of  the  family  mansion,  and, 
as  an  inmate,  was  scarcely  more  than  tolerated. 

"  The  wife,  in  those  ever- to-be-regretted  days, 
not  only  built  and  furnished  the  house,  —  contrib- 
uted to  the  kitchen  the  soup  pot,  water  jars,  and 
other  primitive  domestic  appliances,  —  but  figured 
as  sole  proprietor  of  the  entire  establishment. 

"  The  Pueblo  woman,  though  married,  still  had, 
with  her  children,  her  holding  in  her  own  clan.  In 
case  of  her  death,  the  man's  home  being  properly 
with  his  clan,  he  must  return  to  it. 

"  The  wife  was  not  allowed  to  work  in  the  fields. 
Each  man  tilled  the  plot  allotted  him  by  his  clan. 
The  crops,  once  housed,  were  controlled  by  the 
woman,  as  were  the  proceeds  of  communal  hunts 
and  fisheries. 

"  The  Pueblos  had  their  system  of  divorce.  It 
goes  without  saying  that  it  was  not  attended  by  the 
red-tape  complications  of  our  time.     As  the  hus- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW    MEXICO         27 

band's  continuance  under  the  family  roof-tree  de- 
pended absolutely  on  his  acceptability  to  the  wife,  at 
any  flagrant  marital  breach  of  good  behavior  she 
simply  refused  to  recognize  him  as  her  lord.  In 
vain  he  protested,  stormed,  and  menaced;  the  out- 
raged better  half  bade  him  go,  and  he  went  I  Thus 
easily  and  informally  were  Pueblo  marriages  dis- 
solved; and,  this  summary  transaction  once  well 
concluded,  each  party  had  the  right  to  contract  a 
second  marriage. 

"  The  Pueblo  Indian  is  historically  known  as  a 
Catholic;  that  is  to  say,  he  told  his  beads,  crossed 
his  brow  with  holy  water,  and  duly  and  devoutly 
knelt  at  the  confessional.  This  done,  he  tacitly 
reserved  to  himself  the  privilege  of  surreptitiously 
clinging  to  the  Paganism  of  his  forbears,  and 
zealously  paid  his  tithe  of  observances  at  the 
ancient  shrine  of  '  the  Sun  Father  *  and  *  the 
Moon  Mother.' 

"  Some  of  the  Pueblo  tribes  are  said  still  to  retain 
the  use  of  that  ancient  supplicating  convenience, 
*  the  prayer-stick.' 

"  *  Prayer-sticks,  or  plumes,'  "  explained  the  An- 
tiquary, "  are  but  painted  sticks  tufted  with  down, 
or  feathers,  and,  by  the  simple-minded  Indian,  sup- 
posed especially  to  commend  him  to  the  good  graces 
and  kindly  offices  of  *  Those  Above.'  In  a  certain 
way,  the  aboriginal  prayer-stick  seems  to  have 
been  a  substitute  for  an  oral  supplication. 

"The  Pueblo,  pressed  for  time,  might  even  forego 
the  hindering  ceremonial  of  verbal  request,  adora- 
tion, or  thanksgiving,  and  hurriedly  deposit,  as  a 
votive  offering  to   his  easily   placated   gods,   this 


28  ALAMO    RANCH 

tufted  bit  of  painted  wood ;  and,  furthermore,  since 
prayer-sticks  were  not  always  within  reach,  it  was 
permitted  him  in  such  emergencies  to  gather  two 
twigs,  and,  placing  these  crosswise,  hold  them  in 
position  by  a  rock  or  stone.  And  this  childish 
make-shift  passed  with  his  indulgent  gods  for  a 
prayer ! 

"The  most  trivial  commonplace  of  existence  had, 
with  the  superstitious  Pueblo,  its  religious  signifi- 
cance; and  it  would  seem  to  have  been  incumbent 
on  him  literally  to  *  pray  without  ceasing/  Hence 
the  prayer-plume,  or  its  substitute,  was,  with  him, 
one  of  the  necessities  of  life.  Time  would  fail  me 
to  tell  of  the  ancient  elaborate  religious  rites  and 
superstitions  of  the  Mexican  Indian;  to  recount 
his  latter-day  ceremonials,  wherein  Pagan  dances, 
races,  and  sports  are  like  the  jumble  of  a  crazy 
quilt,  promiscuously  mixed  in  with  Christian  festas 
and  holy  saint-days;  and  indeed  the  subject  is  too 
large  for  my  sketchy  handling.  It  may  not,  how- 
ever, be  amiss  to  notice  the  yearly  celebration  of 
the  festival  of  San  Estevan.  It  may  be  still  wit- 
nessed, and  seems  to  have  been  the  original  Har- 
vest-home of  the  Mexican  Indian,  the  observance  of 
which  has  been  handed  down  in  various  ways  from 
all  times,  and  among  all  peoples,  and  is  probably 
the  parent  of  our  Thanksgiving  holiday. 

"  The  monks  of  the  early  Catholic  church,  in  their 
missionary  endeavor  to  commend  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  pagan  mind,  took  care  to  graft 
upon  each  of  the  various  festas  of  the  Pueblo  one 
of  their  own  saint-day  names.  Thus  it  was  that 
the  Acoma  harvest-home  masquerades  under  the 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        29 

guise  of  a  saint-name,  though  an  absolutely  pagan 
ceremonial. 

"It  is  still  observed  by  them  with  genuine  Ko- 
share  delight.  There  are  dances,  races,  and  tum- 
bling, and  the  carnival-like  showering  of  Mexican 
confetti  from  the  roofs  of  adobe  houses.  In  sum- 
ming up  this  brief  account  of  the  sedentary  New 
Mexican,  I  quote  literally  the  forceful  assertion  of 
Cummings.  *  The  Pueblos,'  says  this  writer,  *  are 
Indians  who  are  neither  poor  nor  naked ;  who  feed 
themselves,  and  ask  no  favors  of  Washington; 
Indians  who  have  been  at  peace  for  two  centuries, 
and  fixed  residents  for  perhaps  a  millennium; 
Indians  who  were  farmers  and  irrigators,  and  six- 
story  housebuilders  before  a  New  World  had  been 
beaten  through  the  thick  skull  of  the  Old.  They 
had,'  he  continues,  *  a  hundred  republics  in  Amer- 
ica centuries  before  the  American  Republic  was 
conceived.' 

"  This  peaceably  minded  people,  as  has  already 
been  stated,  are  by  no  means  to  be  confounded  with 
the  roving  New  Mexican  aborigines,  with  the  un- 
tamed Navajo  scouring  the  plains  on  the  bare  back 
of  his  steed,  or  the  fierce  Apache,  murderous  and 
cruel. 

"We  must  not,"  said  Mr.  Morehouse,  "take 
leave  of  the  Pueblo,  without  some  reference  to  the 
great  flat-topped,  slop-sided  chain  of  rock-tables 
that  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  his  terri- 
tory rises  from  the  sandy  plains,  the  most  famous 
and  best  explored  of  which  is  known  as  *  La  Mesa 
Encantada,'  —  *  the  Enchanted  Mesa.' 

"  According   to   tradition   the   Mesa   Encantada 


30  ALAMO   RANCH 

gains  its  romantic  name  from  an  event  which 
centuries  ago  —  declares  the  legend  —  destroyed 
the  town,  then  a  well-populated  stronghold  of  the 
Acomas.  As  a  prelude  to  this  legend,  let  me  state 
that  the  Pueblo  cliff-dwellers  often  perched  their 
habitations  on  lofty,  sheer-walled,  and  not  easily 
accessible  mesas,  a  natural  vantage-ground  from 
which  they  might  successfully  resist  their  enemies, 
the  nomadic  and  predatory  tribes  formerly  over- 
running the  country. 

"  The  steep  wall  of  the  Acoma  Mesa,  with  its 
solitary  trail,  surmounted  by  means  of  hand  and 
foot  holes  pecked  in  the  solid  rock,  was  so  well 
defended  that  a  single  man  might  keep  an  army  at 
bay.  What  fear,  then,  should  these  Acomas  have 
of  their  enemies? 

"  The  Acomas,  like  other  Pueblo  Indians,  have 
from  time  immemorial  been  tillers  of  the  soil. 

"  From  the  fertile  sands  of  their  valley  and  its 
tributaries  they  won  by  patient  toil  such  harvests 
of  corn,  beans,  squashes,  and  cotton  as  secured 
them  a  simple  livelihood ;  and  *  their  granaries/ 
it  is  asserted,  *  were  always  full  enough  to  enable 
them,  if  need  be,  to  withstand  a  twelvemonth's 
siege.*  How  long  the  top  of  Katzimo,  the  site  of 
the  Enchanted  Mesa,  had  been  inhabited  when  the 
catastrophe  recorded  in  the  legend  befell,  no  man 
may  say,  not  even  the  elders  of  the  tribe ;  this  much 
is,  however,  known,  —  the  spring-time  had  come. 
The  sun-priest  had  already  proclaimed  from  the 
housetops  that  the  season  of  planting  was  at  hand. 
The  seeds  from  last  year's  harvest  had  been  gath- 
ered from  the  bins ;  planting-sticks  had  been  sharp- 


A    STORY   OF    NEW    MEXICO         31 

ened,  and  all  made  ready  for  the  auspicious  day 
when  the  seer  should  further  announce  the  time 
of  repairing  to  the  fields.  On  that  day  (so  runs 
the  tale),  down  the  ragged  trail,  at  early  sunrise, 
clambered  the  busy  natives;  every  one  who  was 
able  to  force  a  planting-stick  into  the  compact  soil, 
or  lithe  enough  to  drive  away  a  robber  crow,  hur- 
ried to  the  planting.  Only  a  few  of  the  aged  and 
ailing  remained  on  the  mesa. 

"While  the  planters  worked  in  the  hot  glare  of 
the  valley  below,  the  sun  suddenly  hid  his  face  in 
angry  clouds.  The  busy  planters  hastened  their 
work,  while  the  distant  thunder  muttered  and  rolled 
about  them.  Suddenly  the  black  dome  above  them 
was  rent  as  by  a  glittering  sword,  and  down  swept 
the  torrent,  until  the  entire  valley  became  a  sheet 
of  flood.  The  planters  sought  shelter  in  the  slight 
huts  of  boughs  and  sticks  from  which  the  crops  are 
watched. 

"  The  elders  bodingly  shook  their  heads.  Never 
before  had  the  heavens  given  vent  to  such  a 
cataract. 

"  When  the  sudden  clouds  as  suddenly  dispersed, 
and  the  sun-lit  crest  of  Katzimo  emerged  from  the 
mist,  the  toilers  trudged  toward  their  mountain 
home.  Reaching  the  base  of  the  trail,  they  found 
their  pathway  of  the  morning  blocked  by  huge, 
sharp-edged  pieces  of  stone,  giving  mute  testimony 
of  the  disaster  to  the  ladder-trail  above. 

"  The  huge  rock  mass,  which  had  given  access  to 
the  cleft  by  means  of  the  holes  pecked  in  the  trail- 
path,  had  in  the  great  cloud-burst  become  freed 
from  the  friable  wall,  and  thundered  down  in  a 


32  ALAMO   RANCH 

thousand  fragments,  cutting  off  communication 
with  the  mesa  village.  The  Acomas,  when  asked 
why  their  ancestors  made  no  desperate  effort  to 
reach  the  sufferers  whose  feeble  voices  were  calling 
to  them  from  the  summit  for  succor,  but  left  their 
own  flesh  and  blood  to  perish  by  slow  starvation, 
gravely  shook  their  heads. 

"  The  ban  of  enchantment  had  already,  for  these 
superstitious  pagans,  fallen  upon  the  devoted  table- 
land ;    it  had  become  *  La  Mesa  Encantada.' 

"  The  publication  by  Mr.  Charles  F.  Lummis, 
who  resided  for  several  years  at  the  pueblo  of  Iselta, 
of  the  story  of  Katzimo,  the  tradition  of  which  was 
repeated  to  him  by  its  gray-haired  priests  some 
twelve  years  ago,  aroused  the  interest  of  students 
of  southwestern  ethnology  in  the  history  of  *  La 
Mesa  Encantada,'  and,  subsequently,  Mr.  F.  W. 
Hodge  was  directed  by  the  Bureau  of  American 
Ethnology,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute,  to  scale 
the  difficult  height  of  this  giant  mountain,  for  the 
purpose  of  supplementing  the  evidence  already 
gained,  of  its  sometime  occupancy  as  a  Pueblo 
town.  His  party  found  decided  evidence  of  a 
former  occupancy  of  the  mesa,  such  as  fragments 
of  extremely  ancient  earthenware,  a  portion  of  a 
shell  bracelet,  parts  of  two  grooved  stone  axes, 
lichen-flecked  with  age.  Here,  too,  was  an  unfeath- 
ered  prayer-stick,  a  melancholy  reminder  of  a  votive 
offering  made,  at  the  nearest  point  of  accessibility, 
to  '  Those  Above.' 

"  *  When  I  consider,*  says  Mr.  Hodge,  in  his 
charming  paper,  *  The  Enchanted  Mesa,'  published 
in  the  *  Century   Magazine,'   some  three  or   four 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        33 

years  ago,  *  that  the  summit  of  Katzimo,  where  the 
town  was,  has  long  been  inaccessible  to  the  Indians, 
that  it  has  been  swept  by  winds,  and  washed  by 
rains  for  centuries,  until  scarcely  any  soil  is  left  on 
its  crest,  that  well-defined  traces  of  an  ancient 
ladder  trail  may  still  be  seen  pecked  on  the  rocky 
wall  of  the  very  cleft  through  which  the  tradition- 
ary pathway  wound  its  course;  and,  above  all,  the 
large  number  of  very  ancient  potsherds  in  the  earthy 
talus  about  the  base  of  the  mesa,  which  must  have 
been  washed  from  above,  the  conclusion  is  inevi- 
table that  the  summit  of  *  La  Mesa  Encantada ' 
was  inhabited  prior  to  1540,  when  the  present 
Acoma  was  discovered  by*  Coronado,  and  that  the 
last  vestige  of  the  village  itself  has  long  been 
washed  or  blown  over  the  cliff/  " 

With  this  account  of  the  Enchanted  Mesa,  Mr. 
Morehouse,  amid  general  applause,  ended  his  in- 
teresting paper  on  the  Pueblo  Indians;  and  after 
a  short  discussion  by  the  Club  of  the  ancient  and 
modern  characteristics  of  these  remarkable  aborig- 
ines, the  Koshare,  well  pleased  with  the  success  of 
its  endeavor  to  combine  improvement  with  delight, 
adjourned  to  the  next  Monday  in  January. 

Little  dreamed  Roger  Smith  as,  that  night,  after 
the  Club  entertainment,  he  handed  the  Hemmen- 
shaw  ladies  to  their  wagon,  for  the  return  ride  to 
Hilton  Ranch,  that  the  very  next  week  he  was  to 
undertake,  on  their  behalf,  a  hand-to-hand  encoim- 
ter  with  a  blood-thirsty  Apache.  Yet  so  was  it 
ordained  of  Fate. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  these  ladies  were 
but  day-boarders  at  Alamo  Ranch,  occupying,  to- 

3 


34  ALAMO    RANCH 

gether  with  Sholto,  a  Mexican  man-of-all-work, 
the  Hilton  Ranch,  a  good  mile  distant  from  the 
boarding-house. 

Louise  Hemmenshaw,  usually  in  exuberant 
health,  was  ill  with  a  severe  influenza.  It  was  the 
third  and  cimiulative  day  of  this  disease.  Sholto 
had  already  been  despatched  to  Brown's  for  the 
dinner;  Miss  Paulina  had,  in  this  emergency, 
undertaken  to  turn  off  the  breakfasts  and  suppers 
from  her  chafing-dish. 

After  replenishing,  from  the  wood  basket,  the 
invalid's  chamber  fire.  Miss  Paulina  administered 
her  teaspoonful  of  bryonia,  gave  a  settling  shake 
to  her  pillow,  and  hurried  down  to  fasten  the  back 
door  behind  Sholto. 

Lingering  a  moment  at  the  kitchen  window,  the 
good  lady  put  on  her  far-off  glasses  for  a  good  look 
across  the  mesa,  stretching  —  an  unbroken  waste 
of  sage-brush  and  mesquite-bush  —  from  the 
Hilton  kitchen  garden  to  the  distant  line  of  the 
horizon. 

As  she  quietly  scanned  the  nearer  prospect.  Miss 
Paulina's  heart  made  a  sudden  thump  beneath  her 
bodice,  and  quickened  its  pulses  to  fever-time;  for 
there,  just  within  range  of  her  vision,  was  the  un- 
doubted form  of  an  Apache  savage,  clad  airily  in 
breech-clout,  and  Navajo  blanket.  Skulking  warily 
along  the  mesa,  he  gained  the  garden  fence  and 
sprang,  at  a  bound,  over  the  low  paling.  For  a 
moment  the  watcher  stood  paralyzed  with  wonder 
and  dismay. 

Meantime,  under  cover  of  a  rose-trelHs,  the 
Apache,  looking  bad  enough  and  cunning  enough 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        35 

for  any  outrage,  coolly  made  a  reconnoisance  of  the 
premises.  This  done,  still  on  all-fours,  he  gained 
the  bulkhead  of  the  small  dark  vegetable  cellar 
beneath  the  kitchen.  It  chanced  to  have  been  inad- 
vertently left  open. 

With  a  satisfied  grunt  (and  eschewing  the  paltry 
convenience  of  steps)  he  bounded  at  once  into  its 
dusky  depths. 

Summoning  her  failing  courage,  this  "  Daughter 
of  the  Revolution  "  resolutely  tiptoed  out  the  front 
door,  and,  with  her  heart  in  her  mouth,  whisk- 
ing round  the  corner  of  the  devoted  house,  shot 
into  place  the  stout  outside  bolt  of  the  bulkhead 
door. 

This  feat  accomplished,  she  made  haste  to  gain 
the  safe  shelter  of  the  adobe  dwelling.  She  next 
looked  well  to  the  bolt  fastening  the  trap-door  at 
the  head  of  the  ladder-like  stairway  leading  peril- 
ously from  the  kitchen  to  the  dim  region  below, 
where  the  Apache  might  now  be  heard  bumping  his 
head  against  the  floor-planks,  in  a  fruitless  en- 
deavor to  discover  some  outlet,  from  this  under- 
ground apartment,  to  the  family  circle  above. 
With  the  frightful  possibility  of  a  not  distant  escape 
of  her  prisoner,  the  good  lady  lifted  her  heart  in 
silent  prayer,  and  hurrying  promptly  to  the  chamber 
of  her  niece,  gave  a  saving  punch  to  the  fire,  a  glass 
of  port  wine  to  the  invalid,  and,  feigning  an  ap- 
pearance of  unconcern,  left  the  room,  and  slipped 
cautiously  down  to  the  kitchen.  Here  she  dragged 
an  ironing-table,  a  clothes-horse,  and  a  wood-box 
on  to  the  trap-door,  and  breathlessly  waited  for  the 
Apache's  next  move. 


36  ALAMO    RANCH 

And  now,  a  step  might  be  heard  on  the  driveway, 
followed  by  a  rap  at  the  front  door. 

Prudently  scanning  her  visitor  through  the  side- 
light, and  assuring  herself  that  he  was  no  breech- 
clouted  savage,  but  a  fellow  white  man,  Miss 
Paulina  let  in  through  the  narrowest  of  openings, 
—  who  but  their  friend  the  Harvard  man !  "  Dear 
soul ! "  tearfully  exclaimed  the  good  lady,  while 
Roger  Smith  stood  in  mute  wonder  at  the  warmth 
of  her  greeting. 

It  was  but  the  work  of  a  moment  to  explain  the 
situation  and  acquaint  him  with  the  peril  of  the 
moment. 

Sholto,  at  his  leisurely  Mexican  pace,  now  oppor- 
tunely appeared  at  the  back  door  with  the  hot 
dinner. 

"  There  is  a  time  for  all  things,"  said  the  "  presi- 
dent of  Chapter  i8th,"  as  (having  pulled  the  be- 
wildered Mexican  inside)  she  vigorously  shot  the 
door-bolt  in  place,  deposited  the  smoking  viands  on 
the  sideboard,  and  thus  addressed  him.  "  Sholto," 
said  Miss  Paulina,  "  I  have  an  Apache  here  in  the 
cellar.  For  the  time  being  his  ability  to  work  us 
harm  is  limited;  but  an  Apache  is  never  nice  to 
have  round;  and,  besides,  he  must  have  terribly 
bumped  himself  poking  round  there  all  this  time  in 
the  dark.  One  would  not  unnecessarily  hurt  even 
a  savage.  We  must  therefore  let  him  up,  bind  him 
fast,  and  take  measures  for  delivering  him  to  the 
police  at  Las  Cruces.  Here  is  a  clothes-line:  it  is 
good  and  strong ;  make  up  a  lasso,  and  when  I  open 
the  trap-door,  as  his  head  bobs  in  sight,  throw  it, 
and  then  help  Mr.  Smith  haul  him  out,  and  tie  him. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        37 

Sholto's  lasso  was  soon  in  working  order.  The 
trap-door  once  raised,  the  head  of  the  unsuspecting 
savage  flew  up  like  a  Jack  in  a  box,  and  with  such 
a  rubber-like  bound  that  Sholto's  lasso  went  wide 
of  the  mark.  In  this  dilemma,  a  scientific  blow 
from  the  fist  of  a  Harvard  athlete  deftly  floored 
him,  and,  in  the  consequent  lapse  of  consciousness, 
he  was  easily  bound,  and  safely  deposited  in  the 
bottom  of  the  Hilton  express  wagon.  This  accom- 
plished, Sholto  and  the  Harvard  man  summarily 
took  the  road  for  Las  Cruces,  some  four  miles  dis- 
tant. The  horse  and  his  driver  being  in  absolute 
accord  as  to  the  ratio  of  miles  proper  to  the  hour, 
the  captors  drove  leisurely  along;  the  Harvard 
man  meantime  relieving  the  slow  monotony  of  the 
way,  with  incident  and  anecdote,  and  Sholto,  in 
turn,  imparting  much  interesting  New-Mexican 
information. 

Presently  a  faint  stir,  as  of  the  quiet,  persistent 
nibbling  of  a  mouse  in  the  wall,  might  (but  for  the 
talking)  have  been  heard  from  the  bottom  of  the 
wagon.  "  Poor  beggar !  '*  said  the  Harvard  man, 
at  last  recalling  to  mind  the  captive  Apache ;  "  he 
must,  by  this  time,  be  about  ready  to  come  to." 
And  taking  from  his  over-coat  pocket  a  tiny  flask 
of  brandy,  he  turned  on  his  seat  with  the  humane 
intention  of  aiding  nature  in  bringing  about  that 
restoration.  "  Gone !  clean  gone !  by  George !  " 
exclaimed  the  astonished  athlete.  The  cunning 
savage  had,  with  his  sharp,  strong  teeth,  actually 
gnawed  through  his  wrist  cords,  and,  with  tooth 
and  nail  extricating  himself  from  the  knotted 
clothes-line,  was  already  on  his  return  from  the  un- 


38  ALAMO   RANCH 

satisfactory  husks  of  Mesilla  Valley,  to  the  fatted 
veal  of  the  U.  S.  government,  in  his  father's  house, 
—  "The  Reservation."  ''They  are  Ueet  steeds  that 
follow!"  quoted  the  Harvard  man  as  the  jubilant 
Apache,  with  flying  heels,  loomed  tantalizingly  on 
the  distant  plain.  The  startled  cotton-tail,  swept 
by  "  the  wind  of  his  going,"  scurried  breathlessly 
to  his  desert  fastnesses  among  the  sage-brush  and 
mesquite. 

With  a  humorous  glance  at  his  fast-vanishing 
form,  the  Harvard  man  measured  with  his  eye  the 
intervening  distance,  the  speed  of  the  escaped  cap- 
tive, and  the  pace  of  the  propeller  of  the  Hilton 
express,  and  gracefully  accepted  the  situation. 
Sholto  lazily  turned  the  horse's  head,  and  in  process 
of  time  the  discomfited  captors  of  Miss  Paulina's 
Apache  —  like  John  Gilpin  — 

"  Where  they  did  get  up 
Did  get  down  again." 

Meantime,  Miss  Hemmenshaw  brought  up  the 
mid-day  meal. 

"  Auntie,"  said  the  invalid,  "  this  feverish  cold 
puts  queer  fancies  in  my  head.  While  you  were 
away,  I  must  have  taken  a  little  nap,  and  when  I 
awoke  there  seemed  to  be  some  sort  of  a  rumpus 
going  on  below ;  after  which  I  fancied  that  a  team 
started  away  from  the  back  door.  It  could  not 
have  been  Sholto's;  for  he  would  be  coming  from 
Brown's  about  that  hour  with  our  dinner." 

"  It  may  have  been  just  a  part  of  your  dream, 
dear,"  pacified  the  aunt ;  "  but  come,  now,  here  is 
our  dinner.     Let  us  have  it  together.     A  wonder- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        39 

fully  nice  dinner  Mrs.  Brown  has  sent  us,  too,  and 
you  can  venture  to-day  on  a  quail,  and  a  bit  of 
orange  pudding.  For  myself,  I  am  as  hungry  as 
a  bear ; "  and,  removing  the  books  from  the  oval 
bedroom  table.  Miss  Paulina  laid  the  cloth,  set  out 
the  dishes  and  glasses,  and  daintily  arranged  the 
viands,  which  the  two  ladies  discussed  with  evident 
relish. 

"  And  now,"  said  the  aunt,  "  since  you  have 
dined,  and  have  something  to  brace  you  up,  I  will 
'  tell  my  experience ; '  "  and  forthwith  she  related  to 
the  astonished  Louise  the  adventure  of  the  morn- 
ing. The  good  lady  had  but  accomplished  her 
exciting  account,  when  the  valiant  captors  of  the 
Apache  drove  up. 

Miss  Paulina,  with  the  concentrated  importance 
of  her  entire  "  Chapter,"  met  and  opened  the  door 
to  her  hero. 

"Well?"   asked  she  of  the  crestfallen  athlete. 

"  No :  ill !  "  replied  he ;  "  the  Apache  never 
reached  Las  Cruces.  He  managed  to  unbind  him- 
self, and  slipped  from  our  hands  by  the  way.  The 
clothes-line  has  come  back  safe;  but  the  savage  is, 
long  ere  this,  well  on  his  road  to  the  Mescalero 
Reservation." 

"Well,"  said  Miss  Paulina,  judicially,  "I 
can't  say  that  I  'm  sorry.  The  creature  had  a 
rough  time  bumping  about  that  low,  dark  cellar; 
and  your  blow  on  his  head  was  a  tough  one.  And 
when  one  considers  the  slip-shodness  of  things  at 
Las  Cruces,  and  the  possible  insecurity  of  their  jail, 
we,  on  the  whole,  are  the  safer  for  his  escape;  and 
he  will,  of  course,  feel  more  at  home  now  in  the 


40  ALAMO    RANCH 

Reservation,  and  will  probably  remain  there  for  a 
while,  after  the  fright  we  gave  him." 

Thus  reassured,  the  Harvard  man  accepted  Miss 
Hemmenshaw's  invitation  to  stay  to  supper.  And 
presently  the  convalescing  invalid  came  down  to 
express  her  thanks  for  his  devoir  of  the  morning. 
Reclining  on  the  parlor  lounge,  in  a  cream-white 
tea  gown,  she  looked  so  lovely  that  a  man  might 
well  have  dared  a  whole  tribe  of  savages  in  her 
defence.  By  and  by  they  had  a  quiet  game  of 
chess.  It  goes  without  saying  that  the  lady  won. 
There  might  be  men  hard-hearted  enough  to  beat 
Louise  Hemmenshaw  at  chess.  The  Harvard  man 
was  not  of  them. 

So  slipped  away  this  happy  afternoon;  and,  at 
sunset  Sholto  appeared  with  the  tea  equipage,  and 
the  young  people  covertly  made  merry  over  a  chaf- 
ing-dish mess  achieved  by  the  Cooking  School 
pupil;  and  under  cover  of  rarebit,  water-biscuit, 
and  cups  of  Russian  tea,  the  Harvard  man  made 
hay  for  himself  in  this  bit  of  sunshine,  and  grew 
in  favor  with  both  aunt  and  niece. 

With  Miss  Paulina  Hemmenshaw,  true  to  her 
aristocratic  birth  and  breeding,  pedigree  far  out- 
weighed filthy  lucre.  To  be  well  born  was,  in  her 
estimation,  to  be  truly  acceptable  to  gods  and  men. 

Roger  Smith,  with  his  plebeian  surname  and  un- 
illustrious  "  tanner  "  grandfather,  was  by  no  means 
a  suitable  husband  for  her  motherless  niece,  to 
whom,  as  the  head  of  her  brother's  household,  she 
had  for  years  filled  a  parent's  place.  Louise  Hem- 
menshaw, as  the  good  lady  shrewdly  guessed,  was 
the   magnet   that   drew   this   undeclared   lover   to 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        41 

Mesilla  Valley.  During  the  preceding  winter  they 
had  met  at  many  social  functions  in  Boston  and 
Cambridge,  and  he  had  become  the  willing  cap- 
tive of  her  bow  and  spear.  He  had  never  told 
his  love. 

The  social  discrepancy  between  the  lovely  aris- 
tocrat and  Roger  —  the  grandson  of  Roger  the 
Tanner  —  was  too  wide  to  be  easily  overstepped. 

Ostensibly  the  Harvard  man  had  come  to  New 
Mexico  to  recruit  his  spent  energies;  but  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  he  knew  that  dearer  than  health  was 
the  hope  of  winning  the  heart  of  Louise  Hemmen- 
shaw.  Already  his  native  refinement  and  charm 
of  manner  had  commended  him  to  Miss  Paulina; 
and  now,  his  prowess  in  the  day's  adventure  had 
made  her,  for  good  and  all,  his  warm  friend.  As 
to  her  niece,  he  told  himself,  as,  that  night,  by  the 
light  of  a  low  moon,  he  took  his  way  to  Alamo 
Ranch,  recalling  the  tender  pressure  of  the  invalid's 
white  hand,  when,  with  a  rosy  blush,  she  bade  him 
good-night,  that  in  his  wooing  he  had  to-day 
"scored  one;"  and  with  the  confident  egotism  of 
presumptuous  mortals,  when  events  play  unex- 
pectedly into  their  hands,  he  decided  that  Fate  had 
prearranged  this  timely  call  of  his  on  the  Hemmen- 
shaws,  and  had  timed  the  arrival  of  the  Apache  at 
that  opportune  hour,  with  an  especial  view  to  the 
fulfilment  of  his  own  cherished  wishes. 


CHAPTER   VI 

ANOTHER  two  weeks  of  lighter  Koshare  fes- 
tivities had  again  brought  round  the  more 
solid  fortnightly  entertainment  of  the  Club. 

Its  members  duly  assembled,  the  president  in  his 
chair,  and  the  secretary  at  attention,  Mr.  More- 
house thus  began  his  second  paper. 

"  Before  T^xas,"  said  he,  "  became  a  part  of  an 
independent  republic,  and  until  after  the  Mexican 
war  (when  we  forced  Mexico  to  sell  us  all  Cali- 
fornia, New  Mexico,  and  Arizona,  nearly  all  of 
Utah  and  Nevada,  besides  Texas,  and  the  greater 
part  of  Colorado),  Mexico  proper  reached  way  up 
here ;  and  it  is  thought  by  some  archaeologists  that 
the  mesas  or  table-mountain  land  especially  char- 
acterizing the  New  Mexican  landscape  may  have 
afforded  the  suggestion  for  the  Teocallis  of  the 
great  pyramid-like  mounds,  with  terraced  sides, 
built  by  the  Aztecs.  Some  scholars  have  even  con- 
vinced themselves  that  the  Aztec  culture  must  have 
originated  here  in  the  North.  Others  wholly  dis- 
card the  conclusion. 

"  Mr.  Baxter,  in  his  valuable  and  interesting 
book  of  Mexican  travel,  says,  decidedly,  *  The  New 
Mexican  Indians  were  not  Aztecs,  and  Montezuma 
had  no  more  to  do  with  New  Mexico  than  he  did 
with  New  England.'  And  with  this  assertion  I 
think  we  must  all,  perforce,  agree. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        43 

"  Of  the  Toltecs,  the  probable  predecessors  in 
Mexico  of  the  Aztecs,  all  written  records,"  said  the 
Antiquary,  "  have  long  since  perished.  They  are 
known  to  us  only  through  traditionary  legends 
orally  handed  down  by  the  races  that  succeeded 
them. 

"  They  are  said  to  have  entered  the  Valley  of 
Anahnac  from  a  northerly  direction,  coming  from 
a  mysterious  unknown  region,  and  probably  before 
the  close  of  the  seventh  century.  They  appear  to 
have  been  a  far  more  gentle  and  refined  nation 
than  their  immediate  successors,  the  half-savage 
Aztecs,  who,  at  last,  with  their  semi-civilization, 
dominated  Mexico.  By  general  archaeological 
agreement,  the  Toltecs  were  well  instructed  in 
agriculture,  and  many  of  the  most  useful  me- 
chanic arts. 

"  *  They  were,'  declares  Prescott,  *  nice  workers 
in  metals.'  They  invented  the  complex  arrange- 
ment of  time  adopted  by  the  Aztecs,  who  are  said 
to  have  been  largely  indebted  to  them  for  the  be- 
ginnings of  that  incongruous  civilization  which 
reached  its  high-water  mark  in  the  reign  of  the 
Montezumas.  So  late  as  the  time  of  the  Spanish 
Conquest  the  remains  of  extensive  Toltec  build- 
ings were  to  be  found  in  Mexico. 

"  *  The  noble  ruins  of  religious  and  other  edi- 
fices,' says  the  same  writer,  *  still  to  be  seen  in 
Mexico,  are  referred  to  this  people,  whose  name, 
Toltec,  has  passed  into  a  synonym  for  Architect* 

"  After  a  period  of  four  centuries  —  having  suc- 
cumbed to  famine,  pestilence,  and  unsuccessful  wars 
—  this  remarkable  people  disappeared  from  the  land 


44  ALAMO    RANCH 

as  silently  and  mysteriously  as  they  had  entered  it. 
It  is  conjectured  that  some  of  them  may  have  spread 
over  the  region  of  Central  America  and  the  neigh- 
boring isles;  and  that  the  majestic  ruins  of  Mitla 
and  Paleque  are  the  work  of  this  vanished  race. 
Tradition  affirms  that  a  remnant  of  Toltecs  still 
lingering  in  Anahnac  '  gave  points '  to  the  next  in- 
habitants; and  the  Tezcucans  are  thought  to  have 
derived  their  gentle  manners  and  comparatively 
mild  religion  from  the  handful  of  Toltecs  who  still 
remained  in  the  country.  A  Spanish  priest,  with 
that  keen  relish  for  the  marvellous  common  to  his 
kind,  accounts  for  this  mysterious  disappearance  by 
supernatural  stories  of  giants  and  demons. 

"  According  to  good  authorities,  more  than  a 
hundred  years  elapsed  between  the  strange  disap- 
pearance of  the  Toltecs  from  the  land  of  Anahnac 
and  the  arrival  on  its  borders  of  the  Aztecs. 

"  After  the  nomadic  fashion  of  barbarous  races, 
this  people  did  not  at  once  make  a  permanent  settle- 
ment, but  pitched  their  tents  in  various  parts  of  the 
Mexican  valley,  enduring  many  casualties  and  hard- 
ships, and  being  at  one  time  enslaved  by  a  more 
powerful  tribe,  whom  their  prowess  subsequently 
dominated. 

"  Some  of  these  wanderings  and  adventures  are 
perpetuated  in  their  oral  traditional  lore. 

"  One  of  these  legends  is  well  substantiated,  and 
current  at  this  day,  having  been  the  origin  of  the 
device  of  the  eagle  and  cactus,  which  form  the  arms 
of  the  present  Mexican  republic,  and  may  be  found 
on  the  face  of  the  Mexican  silver  dollar.  Thus  it 
runs:  *  Having  in  1325  halted  on  the  southwestern 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        45 

borders  of  the  larger  Mexican  lakes,  the  Aztecs 
there  beheld,  perched  on  the  stem  of  a  prickly  pear, 
which  shot  out  from  a  crevice  of  a  rock  that  was 
washed  by  the  waves,  a  royal  eagle  of  extraordi- 
nary size  and  beauty,  with  a  serpent  in  his  talons, 
and  his  broad  wings  open  to  the  rising  sun. 

"  *  They  hailed  the  auspicious  omen,  which  the 
oracle  announced  as  an  indication  of  the  site  of 
their  future  city/ 

"  The  low  marshes  were  then  half  buried  in 
water;  yet,  nothing  daunted,  they  at  once  pro- 
ceeded to  lay  the  sloppy  foundation  of  their  capital, 
by  sinking  piles  into  the  shallows.  On  these  they 
erected  the  light  dwelling-fabrics  of  reeds  and 
rushes,  —  the  frail  beginnings  of  that  solid  Aztec 
architecture  carried  to  such  elegant  elaboration  in 
the  time  of  the  Montezumas.  In  token  of  its  mirac- 
ulous origin  they  called  their  city  Tenochtitlan. 
Later  it  was  known  as  Mexico,  a  name  derived 
from  the  Aztec  war-god,  Mexitil. 

"  It  has  been  shown  that  the  Aztec  race,  once 
permanently  established  in  Mexico,  finally  attained 
to  a  civilization  far  in  advance  of  the  other  wander- 
ing tribes  of  North  America. 

"  *  The  degree  of  civilization  which  they  had 
reached,'  says  Prescott,  *  as  inferred  by  their  politi- 
cal institutions,  may  be  considered  not  far  short  of 
that  enjoyed  by  our  Saxon  ancestors  under  Alfred. 
In  respect  to  the  nature  of  it,  they  may  better  be 
compared  to  the  Egyptians ;  and  the  examination  of 
their  social  relations  and  culture  may  suggest  still 
stronger  points  of  resemblance  to  that  ancient  people. 

"  *  Their  civilization,*  he  goes  on  to  say,  *  was,  at 


46  ALAMO    RANCH 

the  first,  of  the  hardy  character  which  belongs  to 
the  wilderness.  The  fierce  virtues  of  the  Aztec 
were  all  his  own.  They  refused  to  submit  to  Euro- 
pean culture  —  to  be  engrafted  on  a  foreign  stock. 
They  gradually  increased  in  numbers,  made  marked 
improvements  both  in  polity  and  military  discipline, 
and  ultimately  established  a  reputation  for  courage 
as  well  as  cruelty  in  war  which  made  their  name 
terrible  throughout  the  valley.'  In  the  early  part  of 
the  fifteenth  century  —  nearly  a  hundred  years  after 
the  foundation  of  the  city  —  that  remarkable  league 
—  of  which  it  has  been  affirmed  that  '  it  has  no  par- 
allel in  history '  —  was  formed  between  the  states 
of  Mexico  and  Tezcuco,  and  the  neighboring  little 
kingdom  of  Tlacopan,  by  which  they  agreed  mutu- 
ally to  support  each  other  in  their  wars,  offensive 
and  defensive,  and  that  in  the  distribution  of  the 
spoil  one-fifth  should  be  assigned  to  Tlacopan  and 
the  remainder  be  divided  —  in  what  proportions  is 
uncertain  —  between  the  two  other  powers. 

"  What  is  considered  more  remarkable  than  the 
treaty  itself,  however,  is  the  fidelity  with  which  it 
was  kept. 

"  During  a  century  of  uninterrupted  warfare  that 
ensued  no  instance,  it  is  declared,  occurred  in  which 
the  parties  quarrelled  over  the  distribution  of  the 
spoil.  By  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century  the 
allies,  overleaping  the  rocky  ramparts  of  their  own 
valley,  found  wider  occupation  for  their  army,  and 
under  the  first  Montezuma,  year  after  year  saw 
their  return  to  the  Mexican  capital,  loaded  with  the 
spoils  of  conquered  cities,  and  with  throngs  of  de- 
voted captives. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        47 

"  No  State  was  able  long  to  resist  the  accumu- 
lated strength  of  the  confederates;  and  at  the  be- 
ginning of  the  sixteenth  century,  on  the  arrival  of 
the  Spaniards,  the  Aztec  dominion  reached  across 
the  continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific." 

Here  Mr.  Morehouse  ended  his  paper  on  the 
Toltecs,  and  the  Koshare,  with  many  thanks  for 
his  interesting  account  of  these  ancient  races,  sup- 
plemented his  information  by  a  general  discussion 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  accepted  authorities  for 
the  early  history  of  the  Aztecs  and  of  the  time  of 
Montezuma. 

"  Prescott,'*  said  the  Minister,  "  traces  some 
points  of  resemblance  between  the  history  of  the 
Aztecs  and  that  of  the  ancient  Romans;  especially 
in  polity  and  military  success  does  he  compare 
them." 

"  Unfortunately,"  observed  the  Antiquary,  "  the 
earlier  records  of  the  Mexican  people  can  only  be 
scantily  gleaned  from  oral  tradition  and  hiero- 
graphical  paintings." 

"  Later,  however,"  remarked  the  Journalist,  "we 
have  the  seemingly  more  definite  and  reliable 
accounts  of  the  Spanish  chronicles." 

"  These,"  returned  the  Minister,  "  being  usually 
ecclesiastic,  have  warped  their  record  to  suit  their 
own  bigoted  viev/s;  consequently,  much  of  the 
narrative  popularly  known  as  Mexican  history 
is  to  be  taken  with  more  than  the  proverbial  pinch 
of  salt." 

"  It  has,"  said  the  Journalist,  "  been  urged  by 
realistic  critics  of  our  own  fascinating  historian  — 
Prescott — that  since  he  drew  his  historic  data, with 


48  ALAMO    RANCH 

the  exception  of  the  military  record  of  the  Span- 
iards, from  these  unreHable  sources,  his  history- 
is  little  other  than  the  merest  romance.  Plainly, 
the  assertions  of  some  of  the  chroniclers  are  scarce 
more  worthy  of  credence  than  the  equally  fascinat- 
ing adventures  of  Sinbad  the  Sailor,  and  the  im- 
possible stories  of  Baron  Munchausen.  *  Bernard 
Diaz  *  —  that  enigmatical  personage  from  whom 
many  of  Prescott's  data  are  drawn  —  tells  us  that 
the  Aztecs  actually  fattened  men  and  women  in 
cages,  like  spring  chickens,  for  their  sacrifice,  and 
asserts  that  at  the  dedication  of  one  of  their  temples 
a  procession  of  captives  two  miles  long,  and  num- 
bering seventy-two  thousand  persons,  were  led  to 
sacrifice!  By  the  way,  it  has,  however,  been  lat- 
terly proved  that  the  so-called  sacrificial  stone,  now 
exhibited  in  the  National  Museum  of  Mexico,  is 
not  a  relic  of  the  Aztecs,  but  of  the  earlier  Toltecs 
(who  were  not  addicted  to  human  sacrifice),  and  is 
as  innocent  of  human  blood  as  the  Calendar  Stone, 
referred  to  the  same  period.  The  critics  of  Diaz 
have  detected  in  his  account  constant  blunders  in 
many  important  matters,  and  his  glaring  geographi- 
cal errors  would  seem  to  prove  that,  though  he 
claims  to  have  been,  all  through  the  Conquest,  the 
very  shadow  of  Hernando  Cortez,  he  has  never  even 
been  in  the  country  he  describes !  " 

"  From  what  I  have  read  of  Bernald,"  said  Leon, 
"  I  think  we  may  finish  him  off  with  *  Betsy  Prig's ' 
very  conclusive  objection  to  Sairey  Gamp's  *  Mrs. 
Harris  *  —  there  ain't  no  sich  person !  " 

"  Even  so,"  exclaimed  the  Minister,  "  I,  for  one, 
agree  with  certain  downright  critics  who  contend 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        49 

that  Diaz  was  a  pure  fabrication,  a  priestly  scheme 
of  the  Roman  Church  to  screen  the  cruel  enormi- 
ties of  their  agent,  Cortez.  Father  Torquemada, 
another  of  Prescott's  authorities,  is  thought  to  be 
scarcely  more  reliable.  Las  Casas,  another  of  our 
historian  authorities,  whose  history  was,  at  the  time, 
promptly  suppressed  by  the  all-powerful  Inquisition, 
declares  these  Spanish  histories  of  the  Conquest  to 
be  '  wicked  and  false/  " 

"  And  yet,  in  spite  of  these  strictures,"  contended 
Leon,  "  I,  for  one,  still  pin  my  faith  to  Prescott  and 
his  implicit  honesty  of  purpose.  He  gave  us,  in  his 
own  learned  and  fascinating  way,  the  narrative  of 
these  priestly  chroniclers  as  he  found  it.  If  the 
chroniclers  lied,  why,  so  much  the  worse  for  the 
chroniclers." 

"  Lying,"  complained  the  Grumbler,  "  is  a  mal- 
ady most  incident  to  historians ; "  and  thereupon 
rose  to  open  the  parlor  door  for  the  gray-eyed 
school  teacher,  who  just  then  bade  the  Koshare 
good-night,  adding  that  she  had  already  been  too 
long  away  from  her  sister. 

And  now  the  chairman  announced  the  next  paper 
in  the  Koshare  course  for  the  second  Saturday  in 
February,  and  the  members,  one  and  all,  dispersed. 

Sholto,  roused  from  a  most  enjoyable  series  of 
naps,  brought  his  wagon  to  the  side  door,  and  with 
a  friendly  grasp  from  the  hand  of  Miss  Paulina, 
and  a  shy,  tremulous  clasp  from  that  of  her  niece, 
the  Harvard  man  saw  the  ladies  off. 


CHAPTER   VII 

FEBRUARY  had  come,  bringing  in  its  train 
such  weather  as  verified  the  warmest  praise 
of  New  Mexico's  perfect  climate. 

It  was  on  one  of  its  most  spring-Hke  afternoons 
that  a  walking  party  of  eight  set  out  to  pay  a  long- 
proposed  visit  to  the  ladies  at  Hilton  Ranch. 

As  the  little  party  went  gayly  along  the  mesa, 
Leon,  carrying  his  gun,  shot  doves  for  the 
evening  meal,  while  the  rest  walked  on,  chatting 
merrily. 

The  ladies  talking  over,  by  the  way,  the  late  at- 
tempt of  the  Apache  on  Hilton  Ranch,  Mrs.  Bixbee 
declared  herself  curious  to  see  the  cellar  in  which 
Miss  Paulina  had  caught  that  prowling  savage. 
On  their  arrival  that  good  lady,  informed  of  this 
desire,  kindly  proceeded  to  gratify  her  guest,  and 
the  entire  party  was  presently  led  by  her  to  the 
kitchen,  the  hero  of  this  adventure  modestly  walk- 
ing beside  the  fair  lady  of  his  love.  Sholto,  busied 
about  the  place,  was  just  then  out  of  call,  and  Miss 
Hemmenshaw,  intent  to  afford  them  a  peep  into  the 
cellar,  begged  the  Harvard  man  to  raise  for  her  the 
heavy  trap-door. 

The  dear  lady  never  quite  knew  how  it  was  that, 
leaning  forward,  she  lost  her  balance,  and,  but  for 
the  prompt  help  of  Roger  Smith,  might  have  landed, 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        51 

pell-mell,  on  the  cellar  bottom ;  or  how,  in  rescuing 
her,  he  himself  made  the  misstep  that,  ere  he  could 
recover  his  poise,  threw  him  to  the  end  of  the 
ladder-like  cellar  stairs. 

Recovering  breath,  Roger  Smith  cheerily  called 
up  to  the  affrighted  group  at  the  top,  "  All  right !  " 
but,  on  pulling  himself  together  to  make  the  ascent, 
he  suddenly  found  all  wrong.  He  had  sprained  his 
ankle;  and  it  was  with  painful  effort  that  he  won 
to  the  top.  At  this  juncture  Sholto,  aroused  by  the 
unwonted  rumpus,  made  his  appearance,  anticipat- 
ing no  less  a  disaster  than  the  reappearance  of  the 
slippery  savage,  for  whom  he  still  held  the  lasso 
"  in  pickle.''  Disabled  by  the  sprain,  the  Harvard 
man  submitted  himself  to  the  stout  arms  of  the 
Mexican,  and,  by  Miss  Paulina's  direction,  was  car- 
ried into  the  bedroom  adjoining  the  ranch  parlor. 

There,  laid  upon  a  movable  couch  which  served 
the  double  purpose  of  sofa  and  bed,  Sholto  having, 
not  without  difficulty,  removed  his  boot  and  stock- 
ing, he  submitted  the  swollen  foot  to  the  careful 
inspection  of  Miss  Hemmenshaw,  who,  with  a 
steadiness  of  nerve  not  unworthy  of  her  "  Chapter," 
put  the  dislocated  joint  in  place,  bandaged  the  in- 
jured member  with  arnica,  administered  an  inter- 
nal dose  of  the  same  restorative,  and  duly  followed 
it  with  a  glass  of  old  Port.  This  done,  Sholto 
wheeled  the  sufferer's  couch  into  the  adjoining 
parlor.  Half  an  hour  later  Leon  came  in  with  a 
well-filled  game-bag;  and  after  an  hour  of  mild 
Koshare  merriment,  in  which  the  athlete  but  feebly 
joined  (the  pain  of  his  ankle  was  still  terrible),  the 
little  party  took  its  way,  in  the  fading  sunlight,  to 


52  ALAMO    RANCH 

Alamo  Ranch.  Miss  Paulina,  having  promptly  de- 
cided that  her  patient  was  unequal  to  the  return  by 
way  of  the  jolting  Hilton  express  team,  sent  to  Mrs. 
Brown  an  order  for  supper  for  her  guest,  Louise, 
and  herself.  It  was  duly  conveyed  to  Hilton's  by 
an  Alamo  chore-boy.  Sholto,  as  the  sole  male  de- 
pendence of  Hilton's,  must  stick  to  his  post;  for, 
sagely  observed  the  "  Daughter  of  the  Revolution," 
two  women,  heroic  though  they  might  be,  were  no 
match  for  an  Apache  marauder;  and  as  for  poor 
Roger  Smith,  he  could  now  neither  "  fight "  nor 
"  run  away." 

Sholto  lighted  the  lamps,  laid  the  supper  on  the 
low  Queen  Anne  table,  added  fresh  water  from  the 
spring,  and  when  a  pot  of  tea  had  been  made  by 
the  hostess'  own  careful  hand,  and  Sholto  had 
wheeled  up  the  couch  of  the  invalid,  that  he  might 
take  his  supper  a  la  Roman,  the  three  made  a  cheery 
meal. 

When  the  man  had  removed  the  supper  things, 
and  piled  fresh  wood  on  the  andirons,  the  ladies 
brought  their  work-baskets;  and  while  they  busied 
themselves  with  doily  and  centre-piece,  the  Har- 
vard man,  lying  in  the  comfort  of  partial  relief 
from  pain,  watched  the  dainty  fingers  of  Louise 
Hemmenshaw  as  she  bent  industriously  over  her 
embroidery,  and  fell  fathoms  deeper  in  love  with 
the  dear  and  beautiful  girl. 

Roger  Smith  stayed  on  at  Hilton  Ranch,  where, 
thrown  day  after  day  in  semi-helplessness  on  the 
kind  attendance  of  Miss  Paulina  and  the  sweet 
society  of  her  niece,  he  (I  grieve  to  say)  fell  a 
ready  prey  to  the  suggestions  of  a  certain  wily  per- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        53 

sonage  who  (according  to  Dr.  Watts)  finds  em- 
ployment for  idle  hands,  and  thus  conceived  the 
wickedness  of  cunningly  using  this  accident  to  fur- 
ther his  own  personal  ends.  Thus  devil-tempted, 
this  hitherto  upright  young  person  resolved  that  it 
should  be  a  long  day  before  his  sprained  ankle 
should  permit  him  to  return  to  Brown's,  and  lose 
this  precious  opportunity  of  establishing  himself  in 
the  good  graces  of  the  aunt,  and  winning  the  love 
of  the  niece. 

Far  from  approving  the  crooked  policy  which 
led  Roger  Smith  to  feign  lameness  long  after  the 
injured  ankle  had  become  as  sound  as  ever,  the 
present  historian  can  only,  in  view  of  this  lapse 
from  integrity,  affirm  with  Widow  Bedott  that 
"  we  're  poor  creeturs !  "  and,  with  that  deprecia- 
tive  view  of  humanity,  go  on  with  this  truthful 
narrative. 

A  whole  delicious  month  had  been  passed  by 
the  Harvard  man  in  this  paradise,  —  Elysian  days, 
while,  waited  on  by  Sholto,  petted  by  Miss  Paulina, 
and  companioned  by  the  loveliest  of  houris,  he 
dreamed  out  his  dream. 

At  last,  on  a  certain  decisive  evening,  Roger 
Smith  found  himself  alone  in  the  gloaming  with 
Louise  Hemmenshaw.  The  aunt,  who  through  all 
these  weeks  had  zealously  chaperoned  her  niece, 
had  passed  into  the  dining-room  to  evolve  some 
chafing-dish  delicacy  for  the  evening  meal.  With- 
out, the  setting  sun  flooded  all  the  west  with  gold, 
touched  the  distant  mountain  peaks  with  splendor, 
and  threw  a  parting  veil  of  glory  over  the  wide 
mesa.    Within,  the  firelight  made  dancing  shadows 


54  ALAMO    RANCH 

on  the  parlor  wall,  where  the  pair  sat  together  in 
that  eloquent  silence  so  dear  to  love.  "  Well,"  said 
the  athlete  to  himself  (compunctiously  glancing  at 
his  superfluous  crutches,  left  within  easy  reach  of 
his  hand),  "this  performance  can't  go  on  forever. 
I  have  made  believe  about  long  enough;  what 
better  may  I  do  than  own  up  this  very  night,  and 
somehow  bring  this  base  deceit  to  an  end." 

Mentally  rehearsing  the  formula,  in  which,  over 
and  over,  he  had  asked  the  hand  of  this  beautiful 
aristocrat,  his  mind  still  sorely  misgave  him. 
"  Why,"  thought  this  depressed  lover,  "  was  not 
my  name  Winthrop,  Endicott,  or  Sturgis,  instead 
of  Smith;  and  my  grandfather  a  senator,  a  judge, 
or  even  a  stockbroker,  rather  than  a  tanner  ?  " 

Neither  Miss  Paulina  nor  her  brother,  he  dis- 
couragedly  mused,  would  ever  countenance  this  un- 
equal match.  His  millions  would  with  them  weigh 
nothing  against  "  the  claims  of  long  descent." 

The  sun  had  gone  down,  the  after-glow  had 
faded  to  gray.  They  were  still  alone.  The  fire- 
light half  revealed  the  lovely  figure  beside  the 
hearth.  In  that  gown  of  golden-brown  velvet, 
with  the  creamy  old  lace  at  wrists  and  throat,  the 
brown  hair  combed  smoothly  from  the  white  fore- 
head, knotted  behind  and  fastened  with  a  quaint 
arrow  of  Etruscan  gold,  Louise  Hemmenshaw  was 
simply  adorable!  It  was  indeed  good  to  be  here; 
and  why  should  not  a  life  so  sweet  and  satisfying 
go  on  indefinitely? 

"It  is  four  weeks  to-day  since  I  fell  down 
cellar,"  —  such  was  the  commonplace  beginning  to 
this  much  considered  tale  of  love. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        55 

"  Really  ?  "  said  the  lady,  looking  innocently  up 
from  an  absorbed  contemplation  of  the  fender.  "It 
has  not  seemed  so  long.  I  never  before  realized 
what  a  serious  thing  it  is  to  sprain  one's  ankle. 
You  have  been  a  most  patient  sufferer,  Mr.  Smith ; 
and,  indeed,  for  the  past  two  weeks,  a  most  jolly 
one.  Aunt  Paulina  was  saying  to-day  that  it  was 
high  time  we  all  went  back  to  Alamo  for  our  meals, 
and  helped  out  the  Koshare  doings  of  the  Club." 

"  Dear  Miss  Hemmenshaw,"  here  blurted  out 
the  culprit,  "  do  not  despise  me  for  my  meanness, 
since  it  is  all  for  love  of  you  that  I  have  been  sham- 
ming lameness.  For  these  last  two  weeks  I  could 
at  any  time  have  walked  as  well  as  ever."  And, 
hereupon,  without  the  slightest  reference  to  his 
crutches,  he  rose  from  his  chair  and  skipped  over 
to  her  side.  "  A  sprain,"  explained  this  audacious 
lover,  "  may  be  cured  in  a  fortnight,  but  it  takes  a 
good  month  to  woo  and  win  a  fair  lady.  Having 
soon  after  my  accident  decided  that  point,  I  have 
done  my  best.  Tell  me,  dear  Louise,"  pleaded  he, 
"  that  my  tirne  has  been  well  spent.  Say  that,  de- 
ceitful ingrate  though  I  am,  you  will  take  me,  for 
good  and  all." 

"  Roger  Smith,"  replied  the  lady,  with  much 
severity,  "  you  have  repaid  the  devoted  care  of  two 
unsuspecting  females  by  a  whole  fortnight  of  wilful 
duplicity.  For  my  aunt  I  cannot  answer;  for  my- 
self, I  can  only  reply,  —  since  to  err  is  human ;  to 
forgive,  womanlike,  —  dear  Roger,  on  the  whole, 
I  will." 

Miss  Paulina,  a  moment  later  entering  the  parlor, 
surprised  her  invalid  guest,  standing  crutchless  on 


56  ALAMO    RANCH 

his  firm  feet,  with  his  arm  thrown  about  the  waist 
of  her  niece.  "  Well,  well !  "  exclaimed  the  aston- 
ished lady,  "  and  without  his  crutches !  " 

"  Dear  Miss  Paulina,"  said  Roger  Smith  with  a 
happy  laugh,  "  my  ankle  is  as  well  as  ever ;  and 
your  niece  has  promised  to  marry  me.  Say  that 
you  will  have  me  for  your  nephew." 

"  I  seem  already  to  have  gotten  you,  my  good  sir, 
whether  I  will  or  no,"  laughed  Miss  Hemmenshaw. 
"  But,  my  stars  and  garters "  (mentally  added 
she) ,  "  what  ever  will  my  brother  say  ?  A  tanner's 
grandson  coming  into  the  family!  and  he  a  Hem- 
menshaw, and  as  proud  as  Lucifer!"  "Never 
mind,  Auntie  dear,"  said  the  smiling  fiancee,  guess- 
ing her  thoughts.  It  will  be  all  right  with  father 
when  he  comes  to  know  Roger ;  and  besides,  let  us 
remember  that  under  the  *  Star  Spangled  Banner  * 
we  have  our  '  Vanderbilts,'  our  *  Goulds,'  and  our 
*  Rockefellers ; '  but  no  Vere  de  Veres.  And  if 
we  had,  why.  Love  laughs  at  heraldry,  and  is 

"  ♦  Its  own  great  loveliness  alway.' " 

"  To-morrow,"  said  Miss  Paulina  decisively,  "  we 
will  all  dine  at  Alamo  Ranch." 


CHAPTER   VIII 

THROUGH  this  month  of  wooing  and  be- 
trothing at  Hilton  Ranch,  the  Koshare,  at 
Alamo,  never  once  remitted  its  endeavor  to  hearten 
the  despondent. 

The  weekly  entertainments  took  their  regular 
course,  and  were  successfully  carried  on,  and,  in 
due  time,  the  fortnightly  club  convened  to  listen  to 
the  Antiquary's  account  of  "  Montezuma  and  his 
Time." 

And  here  the  Koshare  chronicle  returns  on  its 
track  to  record  that  able  paper. 

"  As  a  consistent  Koshare,"  said  Mr.  Morehouse, 
to  his  eager  listeners,  "  it  behooves  me  to  give  — 
without  that  dry  adherence  to  facts  observed  by  the 
*  Gradgrind  '  historian  —  the  charming  melodra- 
matic details  of  that  romantic  monarch's  life  and 
times  afforded  by  the  popular  Munchausen-like 
data  of  the  Spanish  chroniclers,  albeit  they  have  in 
their  entirety,  all  the  fascination,  and,  sometimes, 
all  the  unbelievableness  of  a  fairy  tale. 

"  The  Aztec  government,"  prefaced  the  Anti- 
quary, "  was  an  elective  monarchy,  the  choice  al- 
ways restricted  to  the  royal  family. 

"  The  candidate  usually  preferred  must  have  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  war;  though,  if  (as  in  the  case 
of  the  last  Montezuma)  he  was  a  member  of  the 
priesthood,    the    royal-born    priest,    no    less    than 


58  ALAMO    RANCH 

the  warrior  was,  with  the  Aztec,  available  as  an 
emperor. 

"When  the  nobles  by  whom  Montezuma  the  Sec- 
ond was  made  monarch  went  to  inform  the  candi- 
date of  the  result  of  the  election,  they  are  said  to 
have  found  him.  sweeping  the  court  of  the  temple 
to  which  he  had  dedicated  himself.  It  is  further 
asserted  that  when  they  led  him  to  the  palace  to 
proclaim  him  king,  he  demurred,  declaring  himself 
unworthy  the  honor  conferred  on  him.  It  is  a 
humiliating  proof  of  the  weakness  of  human  nature 
in  face  of  temptation,  to  find  that,  later,  this  pious 
king  so  far  forswore  his  humility  as  to  pose  before 
his  subjects  as  a  god;  that  five  or  six  hundred 
nobles  in  waiting  were  ordered  to  attend  daily  at 
his  morning  toilet,  only  daring  to  appear  before 
him  with  bared  feet. 

"  It  was  not  until,  by  a  victorious  campaign,  he 
had  obtained  a  sufficient  number  of  captives  to 
furnish  victims  for  the  bloody  rites  which  Aztec 
superstition  demanded  to  grace  his  inauguration, 
that  —  amidst  that  horrible  pomp  of  human  sacri- 
fice which  stained  the  civilization  of  his  people  — 
Montezuma  was  crowned. 

"  The  Mexican  crown  of  that  day  is  described  as 
resembling  a  mitre  in  form,  and  curiously  orna- 
mented with  gold,  gems,  and  feathers. 

"  The  Aztec  princes,  especially  towards  the  close 
of  the  dynasty,  lived  in  a  barbaric  Oriental  pomp, 
of  which  Montezuma  was  the  most  conspicuous 
example  in  the  history  of  the  nation. 

"  Elevation,  like  wine,  seems  to  have  gone  to  the 
head  of  the  second  Montezuma. 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        59 

"  An  account  of  his  domestic  establishment  reads 
Hke  the  veriest  record  of  midsummer  madness. 
Four  hundred  young  nobles,  we  are  told,  waited  on 
the  royal  table,  setting  the  covers,  in  their  turn,  be- 
fore the  monarch,  and  immediately  retiring,  as  even 
his  courtiers  might  not  see  Montezuma  eat.  Hav- 
ing drunk  from  cups  of  gold  and  pearl,  these  costly 
goblets,  together  with  the  table  utensils  of  the  king, 
were  distributed  among  his  courtiers.  Cortez  tells 
us  that  so  many  dishes  were  prepared  for  each  meal 
of  this  lordly  epicure,  that  they  filled  a  large  hall; 
and  that  he  had  a  harem  of  a  thousand  women. 
His  clothes,  which  were  changed  four  times  a  day 
(like  his  table  service),  were  never  used  a  second 
time,  but  were  given  as  rewards  of  merit  to  nobles 
and  soldiers  who  had  distinguished  themselves  in 
war.  If  it  happened  that  he  had  to  walk,  a  carpet 
was  spread  along  his  way,  lest  his  sacred  feet  should 
touch  the  ground.  His  subjects  were  required,  on 
his  approach,  to  stop  and  close  their  eyes,  that  they 
might  not  be  dazzled  by  his  effulgent  majesty.  His 
ostentatious  humility  gave  place  to  an  intolerable 
arrogance.  He  disgusted  his  subjects  by  his 
haughty  deportment,  exacting  from  them  the  most 
slavish  homage,  and  alienating  their  affection  by 
the  imposition  of  the  grievous  taxes  demanded  by 
the  lavish  expenditure  of  his  court. 

In  his  first  years  Montezuma's  record  was,  in 
many  respects,  praiseworthy.  He  led  his  armies  in 
person.  The  Aztec  banners  were  carried  far  and 
wide,  in  the  furthest  province  on  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico,  and  the  distant  region  of  Nicaragua  and 
Honduras.    His  expeditions  were  generally  success- 


6o  ALAMO    RANCH 

ful,  and  during  his  reign  the  limits  of  the  empire 
were  more  widely  extended  than  at  any  preceding 
period. 

"To  the  interior  concerns  of  his  kingdom  he  gave 
much  attention,  reforming  the  courts  of  justice, 
and  carefully  watching  over  the  execution  of  the 
laws,  which  he  enforced  with  stern  severity. 

"  Like  the  Arabian  ruler,  —  Haroun  Alraschid, 
of  benign  memory,  —  he  patrolled  the  streets  of 
his  capital  in  disguise,  to  make  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  the  abuses  in  it.  He  liberally  compen- 
sated all  who  served  him.  He  displayed  great 
munificence  in  public  enterprise,  constructing  and 
embellishing  the  temples,  bringing  water  into  the 
capital  by  a  new  channel,  and  establishing  a  re- 
treat for  invalid  soldiers  in  the  city  of  Colhuacan. 

"  According  to  some  writers  of  authority  there 
were,  in  Montezuma's  day,  thirty  great  caciques,  or 
nobles,  who  had  their  residence,  at  least  a  part  of 
the  year,  in  the  capital. 

"Each  of  these,  it  is  asserted,  could  muster  a  hun- 
dred thousand  vassals  on  his  estate.  It  would  seem 
that  such  wild  statements  should  be  *  taken  with  a 
pinch  of  salt.'  All  the  same,  it  is  clear,  from  the 
testimony  of  the  conquerors,  that  the  country  was 
occupied  by  numerous  powerful  chieftains,  who 
lived  like  independent  princes  on  their  domains.  It 
is  certain  that  there  was  a  distinct  class  of  nobles 
who  held  the  most  important  offices  near  the  per- 
son of  their  emperor. 

"In  Montezuma's  time  the  Aztec  religion  reached 
its  zenith.  It  is  said  to  have  had  as  exact  and  bur- 
densome a  ceremonial  as  ever  existed  in  any  nation. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        6i 

*  One/  observes  Prescott,  *  is  struck  with  its  ap- 
parent incongruity,  as  if  some  portion  had  ema- 
nated from  a  comparatively  refined  people,  open  to 
gentle  influences,  while  the  rest  breathes  a  spirit  of 
unmitigated  ferocity;  which  naturally  suggests  the 
idea  of  two  distinct  sources,  and  authorizes  the 
belief  that  the  Aztecs  had  inherited  from  their  pred- 
ecessors a  milder  faith,  on  which  was  afterwards 
engrafted  their  own  mythology.'  The  Aztecs,  like 
the  idolaters  to  whom  Paul  preached,  declaring 
the  '  Unknown  God '  of  their  *  ignorant  worship,' 
recognized  a  Supreme  Creator  and  Lord  of  the 
Universe. 

"  In  their  prayers  they  thus  addressed  him :  *  The 
Gk)d  by  whom  we  live,  that  knoweth  all  thoughts, 
and  giveth  all  gifts ; '  but,  as  has  been  observed, 

*  from  the  vastness  of  this  conception  their  untu- 
tored minds  sought  relief  in  a  plurality  of  inferior 
deities,  —  ministers  who  executed  the  creator's 
purposes,  each,  in  his  turn,  presiding  over  the  ele- 
ments, the  changes  of  the  seasons,  and  the  various 
affairs  of  man.'  Of  these  there  were  thirteen 
principal  deities,  and  more  than  two  hundred  in- 
ferior ;  to  each  of  whom  some  special  day  or  appro- 
priate festival  was  consecrated. 

"  Huitzilopotchli,  a  terrible  and  sanguinary  mons- 
ter, was  the  primal  of  these;  the  patron  deity  of  the 
nation.  The  forms  of  the  Mexican  idols  were 
quaint  and  eccentric,  and  were  in  the  highest  degree 
symbolical. 

"  The  fantastic  image  of  this  god  of  the  unpro- 
nounceable name  was  loaded  with  costly  ornaments ; 
his  temples  were  the  most  stately  and  august  of 


62  ALAMO    RANCH 

their  public  edifices,  and  in  every  city  of  the  em- 
pire his  altars  reeked  with  the  blood  of  human 
hecatombs. 

"  His  name  is  compounded  of  two  words,  sig- 
nifying *  humming-bird '  and  *  left ; '  from  his 
image  having  the  feathers  of  this  bird  on  his  left 
foot. 

"  Thus  runs  the  tradition  respecting  this  god's 
first  appearance  on  earth :  *  His  mother,  a  devout 
person,  one  day,  in  her  attendance  on  the  temple, 
saw  a  ball  of  bright-colored  feathers  floating  in  the 
air.  She  took  it  and  deposited  it  in  her  bosom,  and, 
consequently,  from  her,  the  dread  deity  was  in  due 
time  born.'  He  is  fabled  to  have  come  into  the 
world  (like  the  Greek  goddess,  Minerva)  armed 
cap-a-pie  with  spear  and  shield,  and  his  head  sur- 
mounted by  a  crest  of  green  plumes. 

"A  far  more  admirable  personage  in  their  myth- 
ology was  Quetzalcoatl,  god  of  the  air;  his  name 
signifies  *  feathered  serpent'  and  *twin.'  During  his 
beneficent  residence  on  earth  he  is  said  to  have  in- 
structed the  people  in  civil  government,  in  the  arts, 
and  in  agriculture.  Under  him  it  was  that  the 
earth  brought  forth  flower  and  fruit  without  the 
fatigue  of  cultivation. 

"  Then  it  was  that  an  ear  of  corn  in  two  days  be- 
came as  much  as  a  man  could  carry ;  and  the  cotton, 
as  it  grew  beneath  his  fostering  smile,  took,  of  its 
own  accord,  the  rich  dyes  of  human  art. 

"In  those  halcyon  days  of  Quetzalcoatl  all  the  air 
was  sweet  with  perfumes  and  musical  with  the  sing- 
ing of  birds. 

"  Pursued  by  the  wrath  of  a  brother-god,  from 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        63 

some  mysterious  cause  unexplained  by  the  fabler, 
this  gracious  deity  was  finally  obliged  to  flee  the 
country.  On  his  way  he  is  said  to  have  stopped  at 
Cholula,  where  the  remains  of  a  temple  dedicated 
to  his  worship  are  still  shown. 

"  On  the  shores  of  the  Mexican  Gulf  Quetzal- 
coatl  took  leave  of  his  followers,  and  promising 
that  he  and  his  descendants  would  revisit  them 
hereafter,  entered  his  *  Wizard  Skiff,'  and  em- 
barked on  the  great  ocean  for  the  fabled  land  of 
Tlapallan. 

"The  Mexicans  looked  confidently  for  the  second 
coming  of  this  benevolent  deity,  who  is  said  to  have 
been  tall  in  stature,  with  a  white  skin,  long,  dark 
hair,  and  a  flowing  beard.  Undoubtedly,  this 
cherished  tradition,  as  the  chroniclers  affirm,  pre- 
pared the  way  for  the  reception  of  the  Spanish 
conquerors. 

"  Long  before  the  landing  of  the  Spaniards  in 
Mexico,  rumors  of  the  appearance  of  these  men 
with  fair  complexions  and  flowing  beards  —  so 
unlike  their  own  physiognomy  —  had  startled  the 
superstitious  Aztecs.  The  period  for  the  return 
of  Quetzalcoatl  was  now  near  at  hand.  The  priestly 
oracles  were  consulted;  they  are  said  to  have  de- 
clared, after  much  deliberation,  that  the  Spaniards, 
though  not  gods,  were  children  of  the  Sun;  that 
they  derived  their  strength  from  that  luminary,  and 
were  only  vulnerable  when  his  beams  were  with- 
drawn; and  they  recommended  attacking  them 
while  buried  in  slumber.  This  childish  advice,  so 
contrary  to  Aztec  military  usage,  was  reluctantly 
followed  by  these  credulous  warriors,  and  resulted 


64  ALAMO    RANCH 

in  the  defeat  and  bloody  slaughter  of  nearly  the 
whole  detachment. 

"  The  conviction  of  the  supernaturalism  of  the 
Spaniard  is  said  to  have  gained  ground  by  some 
uncommon  natural  occurrences,  such  as  the  acci- 
dental swell  and  overflow  of  a  lake,  the  appearance 
of  a  comet,  and  conflagration  of  the  great  temple. 

"We  are  told  that  Montezuma  read  in  these  prod- 
igies special  annunciations  of  Heaven  that  argued 
the  speedy  downfall  of  his  empire. 

"  From  this  somewhat  digressive  account  of  the 
Aztec  superstition,  in  regard  to  the  *  second  com- 
ing' of  their  beneficent  tutelar  divinity,  which,  as 
may  be  seen,  played  into  the  hands  of  Cortez,  and 
furthered  his  hostile  designs  upon  Mexico,  let  us 
return  to  the  time  in  Aztec  history  when  no  usurp- 
ing white  man  had  set  foot  upon  Montezuma's 
territory. 

"  We  are  told  that  this  people,  in  their  compara- 
tive ignorance  of  the  material  universe,  sought  relief 
from  the  oppressive  idea  of  the  endless  duration  of 
time  by  breaking  it  up  into  distinct  cycles,  each 
of  several  thousand  years'  duration.  At  the  end  of 
each  of  these  periods,  by  the  agency  of  one  of  the 
elements,  the  human  family,  as  they  held,  was  to  be 
swept  from  the  earth,  and  the  sun  blotted  out  from 
the  heavens,  to  be  again  freshly  rekindled.  With 
later  theologians,  who  have  less  excuse  for  the  un- 
lovely superstition,  they  held  that  the  wicked  were 
to  expiate  their  sins  everlastingly  in  a  place  of 
horrible  darkness.  It  was  the  work  of  a  (so-called) 
Christianity  to  add  to  the  Aztec  place  of  torment 
the  torture  of  perpetual  fire  and  brimstone.     The 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        65 

Aztec  heaven,  like  the  Scandinavian  Valhalla,  was 
especially  reserved  for  their  heroes  who  fell  in 
battle.  To  these  privileged  souls  were  added  those 
slain  in  sacrifice.  These  fortunate  elect  of  the 
Aztecs  seem  to  have  been  destined  for  a  time  to  a 
somewhat  lively  immortality,  as  they  at  once  passed 
into  the  presence  of  the  Sun,  whom  they  accom- 
panied with  songs  and  choral  dances  in  his  bright 
progress  through  the  heavens.  After  years  of  this 
stirring  existence,  these  long-revolving  spirits  were 
kindly  permitted  to  take  breath;  and  thereafter  it 
was  theirs  to  animate  the  clouds,  to  reincarnate  in 
singing  birds  of  beautiful  plumage,  and  to  revel 
amidst  the  bloom  and  odors  of  the  gardens  of 
Paradise. 

"  Apart  from  this  refined  Elysium  and  a  moder- 
ately comfortable  hell,  void  of  appliances  for  the 
torture  of  burning,  the  Aztecs  had  a  third  place  of 
abode  for  immortals.  Thither  passed  those  *  o'er 
bad  for  blessing  and  o'er  good  for  banning,*  who 
had  but  the  merit  of  dying  of  certain  (capriciously 
selected)  diseases.  These  commonplace  spirits  were 
fabled  to  enjoy  a  negative  existence  of  indolent 
contentment.  *  The  Aztec  priests,'  says  Prescott, 
*  in  this  imperfect  stage  of  civilization,  endeavored 
to  dazzle  the  imagination  of  this  ignorant  people 
with  superstitious  awe,  and  thus  obtained  an  influ- 
ence over  the  popular  mind  beyond  that  which  has 
probably  existed  in  any  other  country,  even  in 
ancient  Egypt.' 

"  Time  will  not  permit  here  a  detailed  account  of 
this  insidious  priesthood;  its  labored  and  pompous 
ceremonial;    its  midnight  prayers;    its  cruel  pen- 

S 


66  ALAMO    RANCH 

ance  (as  the  drawing  of  blood  from  the  body  by 
flagellation,  or  piercing  of  the  flesh  with  the  thorns 
of  the  aloe),  akin  to  the  absurd  austerities  of 
Roman  Catholic  fanaticism.  The  Aztec  priest, 
unlike  the  Roman,  was  allowed  to  marry,  and  have 
a  family  of  his  own ;  and  not  all  the  religious  cere- 
monies imposed  by  him  were  austere.  Many  of 
them  were  of  a  light  and  cheerful  complexion,  such 
as  national  songs  and  dances,  in  which  women  were 
allowed  to  join.  There  were,  too,  innocent  proces- 
sions of  children  crowned  with  garlands,  bearing 
to  the  altars  of  their  gods  offerings  of  fruit,  ripened 
maize,  and  odoriferous  gums.  It  was  on  these 
peaceful  rites,  derived  from  his  milder  and  more 
refined  Toltec  predecessors,  that  the  fierce  Aztec 
grafted  the  loathsome  rite  of  human  sacrifice. 

"  To  what  extent  this  abomination  was  carried 
cannot  now  be  accurately  determined.  The  priestly 
chroniclers,  as  has  been  shown,  were  not  above  the 
meanness  of  making  capital  for  the  church,  by 
exaggerating  the  enormities  of  the  pagan  dispen- 
sation. Scarcely  any  of  these  reporters  pretend  to 
estimate  the  yearly  human  sacrifice  throughout  the 
empire  at  less  than  twenty  thousand;  and  some 
carry  the  number  as  high  as  fifty  thousand.  A 
good  Catholic  bishop,  writing  a  few  years  after 
the  conquest,  states  in  his  letter  that  twenty  thou- 
sand victims  were  yearly  slaughtered  in  the  capital. 
A  lie  is  brought  to  absolute  perfection  when  its 
author  is  able  to  believe  it  himself. 

"  Torquemada,  another  chronicler,  often  quoted 
by  Prescott,  turns  this  into  twenty  thousand 
infants! 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        67 

"  These  innocent  creatures,  he  tells  us,  were  gen- 
erally bought  by  the  priests  from  parents  poor 
enough  and  superstitious  enough  to  stifle  the 
promptings  of  nature,  and  were,  at  seasons  of 
drought,  at  the  festival  of  Haloc,  the  insatiable 
god  of  the  rain,  offered  up,  borne  to  their  doom  in 
open  litters,  dressed  in  festal  robes,  and  decked 
with  freshly  blown  flowers,  their  pathetic  cries 
drowned  in  the  wild  chant  of  the  priests.  It  is 
needless  to  add  that  this  assumption  has  but  the 
slightest  groundwork  of  likelihood. 

"  Las  Casas,  before  referred  to,  thus  boldly  de- 
clares :  '  This  is  the  estimate  of  brigands  who  wish 
to  find  an  apology  for  their  own  atrocities ; '  and 
loosely  puts  the  victims  at  so  low  a  rate  as  to  make 
it  clear  that  any  specific  number  is  the  merest 
conjecture. 

"  Prescott,  commenting  on  these  fabulous  state- 
ments, instances  the  dedication  of  the  great  temple 
of  the  *  Mexican  War  God '  in  i486,  when  the 
prisoners,  for  years  reserved  for  the  purpose,  were 
said  to  have  been  ranged  in  files  forming  a  proces- 
sion nearly  two  miles  long;  when  the  ceremony 
consumed,  as  averred,  several  days,  and  seventy 
thousand  captives  are  declared  to  have  perished  at 
the  shrine  of  this  terrible  deity.  In  view  of  this 
statement,  Prescott  logically  observes :  *  Who  can 
believe  that  so  numerous  a  body  would  have  suf- 
fered themselves  to  be  led  unresistingly,  like  sheep, 
to  the  slaughter?  Or  how  could  their  remains,  too 
great  for  consumption  in  the  ordinary  way,  be  dis- 
posed of  without  breeding  a  pestilence  in  the  cap- 
ital ?      One   fact/    he   adds,    *  may   be   considered 


68  ALAMO    RANCH 

certain.  It  was  customary  to  preserve  the  skulls 
of  the  sacrificed  in  buildings  appropriate  to  the 
purpose;  and  the  companions  of  Cortez  say  they 
counted  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  thousand  skulls 
in  one  of  the  edifices.' 

"  Religious  ceremonials  were  arranged  for  the 
Aztec  people  by  their  crafty  and  well-informed 
priesthood,  and  were  generally  typical  of  some  cir- 
cimistances  in  the  character  or  history  of  the  deity 
who  was  the  object  of  them.  That  in  honor  of  the 
god  called  by  the  Aztecs  *  the  soul  of  the  world/ 
and  depicted  as  a  handsome  man  endowed  with 
perpetual  youth,  was  one  of  their  most  important 
sacrifices.  An  account  of  this  sanguinary  perform- 
ance is  gravely  given  by  Prescott  and  other  writers. 
Though  highly  sensational  and  melodramatic,  since 
our  betters  have  found  it  believable,  we  transcribe 
it  for  the  New  Koshare ;   thus  runs  the  tale :  — 

"  *  A  year  before  the  intended  sacrifice,  a  captive, 
distinguished  for  his  personal  beauty,  and  without 
a  single  blemish  on  his  body,  was  selected  to  repre- 
sent this  deity.  Certain  tutors  took  charge  of  him, 
and  instructed  him  how  to  perform  his  new  part 
with  becoming  grace  and  dignity.  He  was  arrayed 
in  a  splendid  dress,  regaled  with  incense  and  with 
a  profusion  of  sweet-scented  flowers,  of  which  the 
ancient  Mexicans  were  as  fond  as  are  their  descend- 
ants at  the  present  day.  When  he  went  abroad  he 
was  attended  by  a  train  of  the  royal  pages ;  and  as 
he  halted  in  the  streets  to  play  some  favorite  melody 
the  crowd  prostrated  themselves  before  him,  and 
did  him  homage  as  the  representative  of  their  good 
deity.     In  this  way  he  led  an  easy,  luxurious  life 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        69 

until  within  a  month  of  his  sacrifice.  Four  beauti- 
ful girls  were  then  given  him  as  concubines;  and 
with  these  he  continued  to  live  in  idle  dalliance, 
feasted  at  the  banquets  of  the  principal  nobles,  who 
paid  him  all  the  honors  of  a  divinity.  At  length 
the  fatal  day  of  sacrifice  arrived.  The  term  of  his 
short-lived  glories  was  at  an  end. 

"  *  He  was  stripped  of  his  gaudy  apparel,  and 
bade  adieu  to  the  fair  partners  of  his  revelry.  One 
of  the  royal  barges  transported  him  across  the  lake 
to  a  temple  which  rose  on  its  margin,  about  a  league 
from  the  city.  Hither  the  inhabitants  flocked  to 
witness  the  consummation  of  the  ceremony.  As  the 
sad  procession  wound  up  the  sides  of  the  pyramid, 
the  unhappy  victim  threw  away  his  gay  chaplets 
of  flowers,  and  broke  in  pieces  the  musical  instru- 
ments with  which  he  had  solaced  the  hours  of  his 
captivity. 

"  *  On  the  summit  he  was  received  by  six  priests, 
whose  long  and  matted  locks  flowed  disorderedly 
over  their  sable  robes,  covered  with  hieroglyphic 
scrolls  of  mystic  import.  They  led  him  to  the  sac- 
rificial stone,  a  huge  block  of  jasper  with  its  upper 
surface  somewhat  convex.  On  this  the  prisoner 
was  stretched.  Five  priests  secured  his  head  and 
limbs,  while  the  sixth,  clad  in  a  scarlet  mantle, 
emblematic  of  his  bloody  office,  dexterously  opened 
the  breast  of  the  wretched  victim  with  a  sharp  razor 
of  itdi  (a  volcanic  substance  hard  as  flint),  and, 
inserting  his  hand  in  the  wound,  tore  out  the  pal- 
pitating heart.  The  minister  of  death,  first  holding 
the  heart  up  towards  the  sun  (also  an  object  of 
their  worship)  cast  it  at  the  feet  of  the  god,  while 


70  ALAMO   RANCH 

the  multitudes  below  prostrated  themselves  in 
humble  adoration/ 

"  The  tragic  circumstances  depicted  in  this  san- 
guinary tale  were  used  by  the  priests  to  *  point  a 
moral/  The  immolation  of  this  unhappy  youth 
was  expounded  to  the  people  as  a  type  of  human 
destiny,  which,  brilliant  in  its  beginning,  often 
closes  in  sorrow  and  disaster. 

"  In  this  loathsome  manner,  if  we  may  believe  the 
account  given,  was  the  mangled  body  disposed  of. 
It  was  delivered  by  the  priests  to  the  warrior  who 
had  taken  the  captive  in  battle,  and  served  up  by 
him  at  an  entertainment  given  to  his  friends. 

"  This,  we  are  told,  was  no  rude  cannibal  orgy, 
but  a  refined  banquet,  teeming  with  delicious  bever- 
ages, and  delicate  viands  prepared  with  dainty  art, 
and  was  attended  by  guests  of  both  sexes,  and  con- 
ducted with  all  the  decorum  of  civilized  life.  Thus, 
in  the  Aztec  religious  ceremonial,  refinement  and 
the  extreme  of  barbarism  met  together. 

"  The  Aztec  nation  had,  at  the  time  of  the  Con- 
quest, many  claims  to  the  character  of  a  civilized 
community.  The  debasing  influence  of  their  reli- 
gious rites  it  was,  however,  that  furnished  the 
fanatical  conquerors  with  their  best  apology  for 
the  subjugation  of  this  people.  One-half  condones 
the  excuses  of  the  invaders,  who  with  the  cross  in 
one  hand  and  the  bloody  sword  in  the  other,  justi- 
fied their  questionable  deeds  by  the  abolishment  of 
human  sacrifice. 

"  The  oppressions  of  Montezuma,  with  the  fre- 
quent insurrections  of  his  people,"  concluded  the 
Antiquary,  "when  in  the  latter  part  of  his  reign 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        71 

one-half  the  forces  of  his  empire  are  said  to  have 
been  employed  in  suppressing  the  commotions  of 
the  other,  disgust  at  his  arrogance,  and  his  out- 
rageous fiscal  exactions,  reduced  his  subjects  to 
that  condition  which  made  them  an  easy  prey  to 
Cortez,  whose  army  at  last  overpowered  the  em- 
peror and  swept  the  Aztec  civilization  from  the  face 
of  the  earth." 

"  I  find  it  strange,"  said  the  Journalist  (in  the 
little  talk  that  followed  Mr.  Morehouse's  able 
paper),  "that  civilized  nations  have  held  an  idea 
so  monstrous  as  the  necessity  of  vicarious  physical 
suffering  of  a  victim  to  appease  the  wrath  of  a 
divine  being  with  the  erring  creatures  who,  such 
as  they  are,  are  the  work  of  his  hands. 

"  That  unenlightened  races,  from  time  imme- 
morial, should  have  supposed  that  the  shedding  of 
blood  propitiated  their  angry  god,  or  gods,  is  but 
the  natural  outcome  of  ignorance  and  superstition; 
but,  that  in  this  twentieth  century,  civilized  wor- 
shippers should  sing  — 

*  There  is  a  fountain  filled  with  blood 

Drawn  from  Immanuel's  veins ; 
And  sinners  plunged  beneath  that  flood 
Lose  all  their  guilty  stains '  — 

passes  my  understanding." 

"  In  the  ruins  of  Palenque  there  is,"  said  the 
Antiquary,  "  a  scene  portrayed  on  its  crumbling 
walls,  in  which  priests  are  immolating  in  a  furnace 
placed  at  the  feet  of  an  image  of  Saturn  the  choicest 
infants  of  the  nation,  while  a  trumpeter  enlivens 
the  occasion  with  music,  and  in  the  background  a 


y2  ALAMO    RANCH 

female  spectator,  supposed  to  be  the  mother  of  the 
victim,  looks  on." 

"  The .  sacrifices  to  Moloch  (or  Saturn),"  inter- 
polated the  Minister,  "  were  marked  features  of  the 
Phoenician  idolatry.  In  the  Bible  account  we  read 
that  even  their  kings  *  made  their  children  to  pass 
through  the  fire  to  Moloch.'  " 

"  Well,"  commented  the  Grumbler,  "  it  may  be 
said  of  a  portion  of  this  evening's  entertainment 
that  it  is  distinguished  by  the  charm  found  by 
'Helen's'  sanguinary-minded  *  baby,'  in  the  story 
of  *  Goliath's  head,'  —  it  is  *  all  bluggy.'  " 

"  Right  you  are,"  responded  the  star  boarder 
with  a  shudder.  "  Cold  shivers  have  meandered 
along  my  poor  back  until  it  has  become  one  dread- 
ful block  of  ice;  and,  judging  by  the  horror  de- 
picted on  these  ladies'  faces  as  they  listened  to  the 
details  of  the  Aztec  sacrifice,  I  fancy  that  they  too 
have  supped  o'er-fuU  of  horrors." 

The  Minister's  eye  rested  for  a  moment  affec- 
tionately on  his  stanch  little  wife.  He  sighed,  and 
looked  with  mild  rebuke  on  these  godless  triflers. 

And  now  the  Koshare  (some  of  them  stoutly 
orthodox)  wisely  put  by  the  question  of  vicarious 
atonement,  and  summarily  adjourned. 


CHAPTER   IX 

IT  was  but  the  next  week  when,  unexpectedly  as 
thunderbolts  now  and  then  surprise  us  on  days 
of  serene,  unclouded  sky,  an  unlooked-for  domestic 
calamity  startled  Alamo  Ranch. 

Dennis,  the  good-natured  Irish  waiter,  and  Fang 
Lee,  the  Chinese  cook,  had  come  to  blows.  The 
battle  had  been  (so  to  put  it)  a  religious  contro- 
versy, and  such,  as  we  know,  have  a  bitterness  all 
their  own.  It  was  inaugurated  by  Dennis,  who,  as 
a  good  Catholic,  had,  on  a  Friday,  refused  to  sam- 
ple one  of  Fang's  chef-d'oeuvres,  —  a  dish  of  veal 
cutlets  with  mushroom  sauce.  A  mutual  inter- 
change of  offensive  words,  taunts  highly  derogatory 
to  his  holiness  Pope  Leo  XIII.  and  equally  insult- 
ing to  the  memory  of  that  ancient  Chinese  sage, 
Confucius,  had  finally  led  to  a  bout  of  fisticuffs. 
In  this  encounter.  Fang  Lee,  a  slightly  built,  under- 
sized celestial,  had  naturally  been  worsted  at  the 
hand  of  the  robust  Hibernian,  a  good  six  feet  five 
in  his  stockings.  Dennis,  the  "  chip  well  off  his 
shoulder,"  had  peacefully  returned  to  the  duties  of 
his  vocation,  nonchalantly  carrying  in  the  dinner, 
removing  the  plates  and  dishes,  and  subsequently 
whistling  "  St.  Patrick's  Day  in  the  Morning " 
under  the  very  nose  of  the  Confucian,  as  he  uncon- 
cernedly washed  his  plates  and  glasses,  and  scoured 


74  ALAMO    RANCH 

his  knives.  Fang,  having  meantime  sent  in  his 
dinner,  cleaned  his  pots  and  pans,  brushed  his 
baggy  trousers,  adjusted  his  disordered  pigtail,  and 
straightway  gave  in  his  notice;  and  with  sullen 
dignity  retired  to  the  privacy  of  his  bedroom,  for 
the  avowed  purpose  of  packing  his  box.  On  the 
ensuing  morning  he  would  shake  from  his  feet  the 
dust  of  Alamo  Ranch. 

Vain  were  the  endeavors  of  his  discomfited  em- 
ployers to  gain  the  ear  of  the  implacable  Fang  Lee. 
He  stood  out  resolutely  for  the  privacy  of  his  small 
sleeping  apartment,  obstinately  refusing  admission 
to  outsiders. 

In  a  house  replete  with  boarders,  and  forty  miles 
from  available  cooks.  Fang's  pending  loss  was  in- 
deed a  calamity. 

In  this  dilemma,  the  disheartened  landlord  and 
his  wife  begged  the  intercession  of  the  star 
boarder,  —  always  in  high  favor  with  the  domes- 
tics, and  known  to  be  especially  in  the  good  graces 
of  the  Chinaman.  Long  did  this  envoy  of  peace 
unsuccessfully  besiege  the  bedroom  door  of  the  of- 
fended Fang  Lee.  In  the  end,  however,  he  gained 
admittance;  and  with  adroit  appeals  to  the  better 
nature  of  the  irate  cook,  and  a  tactful  representa- 
tion of  the  folly  of  giving  up  a  good  situation  for 
the  sake  of  a  paltry  quarrel,  he  finally  brought  Fang 
Lee  down  from  his  "  high  horse,"  and  persuading 
good-natured  Dennis  to  make  suitable  friendly  ad- 
vances, effectually  healed  the  breach. 

Ere  nightfall  amity  reigned  in  the  ranch  kitchen, 
and  the  respective  pockets  of  the  belligerents  were 
the  heavier  for  a  silver  dollar,  —  a  private  peace- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        75 

offering  contributed  by  the  arbitrator.  An  Irish- 
man is  nothing  if  not  magnanimous ;  Dennis  readily 
"  buried  the  hatchet,"  handle  and  all. 

Not  so  Fang  Lee,  who,  smugly  pocketing  his 
dollar,  covertly  observed  to  the  giver,  by  way  of 
the  last  word,  "  All  samee.  Pope  bigee  dam  foolee." 

With  genial  satisfaction  the  star  boarder  re- 
ceived the  thanks  of  the  Browns  for  having  saved 
to  them  their  cook,  and,  with  simple  pleasure  in  the 
result  of  his  diplomacy,  met  the  encomiums  of  his 
fellow-boarders. 

To  this  gracious  and  beautiful  nature,  replete 
with  "  peace  and  good-will  to  man,"  to  help  and 
serve  was  but  -"  the  natural  way  of  living." 


CHAPTER   X 

AT  mid-March,  in  this  sun-loved  land,  the 
genial  season  far  outdoes  our  own  belated 
Northern  May.  Already,  in  Mesilla  Valley,  the 
peach,  pear,  and  apricot  buds  of  the  orchard  are 
showing  white  and  pink.  In  the  garden,  rose- 
bushes are  leaving  out,  and  mocking-birds  make 
the  air  sweet  with  song. 

"  In  the  spring,'*  said  Leon  Starr,  parodying 
Tennyson  one  morning  at  the  breakfast-table,  "  the 
Koshare  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts  of  Shalam. 
Why  not  make  to-day  our  long-planned  excursion 
to  that  famous  colony  ?  " 

"  All  right,"  responded  the  entire  Koshare ;  and 
that  afternoon  a  party  of  twelve  set  out  from  Alamo 
Ranch  to  explore  that  remarkable  colony,  some 
seven  miles  up  the  valley. 

A  description  of  the  place  and  an  account  of  this 
excursion  is  copied  verbatim  by  the  present  writer 
from  the  journal  of  one  of  the  party. 

"  To  begin  at  the  beginning,"  says  the  narrator, 
"  the  colony  was  started  by  one  Dr.  ,  a  den- 
tist from  Philadelphia.  He  enlisted  as  a  partner 
in  his  enterprise  a  man  from  that  region  of  fads  — 
Boston,  Mass.  To  this  chimera  of  the  doctor's 
brain,  the  latter,  a  man  of  means,  lent  his  approval, 
and,  still  more  to  the  point,  the  money  to  carry  out 
the  doctor's  plans. 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        ^7 

"  Some  few  years  ago  the  original  founder  of 
Shalam  died,  leaving  to  his  partner  the  work  of 
carrying  out  his  half-tried  experiment. 

"  Mr. lived  on  in  the  place,  assuming  its  en- 
tire charge,  and  finally  marrying  the  doctor's  widow, 
—  a  lady  of  unusual  culture  and  refinement,  but 
having  a  bent  towards  occult  fads,  as  Spiritualism, 
Mental  Science,  and  their  like. 

"  Well,  we  arrived  safely  at  Shalam,  and  were 

met  by  Mrs. and  a  dozen  or  more  tow-headed 

kids.  It  is  noticeable  that  the  whole  twenty-seven 
children  selected  for  this  experiment  have  light  hair 

and  blue  eyes.     Mrs.  kindly  presented  us  to 

her  husband,  —  apparently  a  man  of  refined  nat- 
ural tendencies  and  fair  intellectual  culture,  but 
evidently,  like  *  Miss  Elite,'  *  a  little  m-m,  you 
know.' 

"  Conventionally  clothed,  Mr.  would  un- 
doubtedly have  been  more  than  presentable;  in  his 
Shalam  undress  suit  he  was,  to  say  the  least,  unique. 

"  His  long,  heavy  beard  was  somewhat  unkempt. 
His  feet  were  in  sandals,  without  stockings.  His 
dress  consisted  of  a  pair  of  white  cotton  pants,  and 
a  blouse  of  the  same  material,  f  rogged  together  with 
blue  tape,  the  ends  hanging  down  over  his  left  leg. 
Hitched  somehow  to  his  girdle  was  a  plain  watch- 
chain,  which  led  to  a  pocket  for  his  watch,  on  the 
front  of  his  left  thigh,  placed  just  above  the  knee. 
When  he  wants  time  he  raises  the  knee  and  takes 
out  the  watch,  standing  on  one  leg  the  while. 

"  The  place  is  beautifully  situated  on  the  banks 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  with  a  range  of  high  mountains 
across  the  river. 


78  ALAMO    RANCH 

"  It  consists  of  two  parts :  '  Leontica/  a  village 
for  the  workers,  where  they  have  many  nice  cot- 
tages, an  artesian  well  for  irrigation,  and  a  big 
steam  pump  to  force  the  water  through  all  the 
ditches;  Shalam,  the  home  of  the  children,  has  a 
big  tank,  with  six  windmills  pumping  water  into 
it  all  the  time.  Near  the  tank  is  the  dormitory,  — 
a  building  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  in  di- 
mension. Through  its  middle  runs  a  large  hall  for 
the  kids  to  gambol  in.  On  each  side  are  rooms  for 
the  attendants  and  the  larger  children. 

"  Chiefly  noticeable  was  the  cleanliness  of  the 
hall,  and  the  signs  over  the  doors  of  the  chambers, 
each  with  its  motto,  a  text  from  *  OahspeJ  —  the 
Shalam  bible. 

**  At  each  end  of  the  hall  was  a  big  sign,  reading 
thus :  '  Do  not  kiss  the  children.'  As  none  of  them 
were  especially  attractive,  this  command  seemed 
quite  superfluous.  After  looking  over  the  dormi- 
tory, we  were  led  to  the  main  building,  projected 

by  the  late  Dr.  .    This  encloses  a  court  about 

one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  by  sixty  in  size,  and 
planted  with  fig  trees. 

"  The  front  of  the  building  is  taken  up  by  the 
library  of  the  doctor;  on  the  opposite  side  is  his 
picture  gallery. 

"  Rooms  or  cells  for  the  accommodation  of  guests 
occupy  the  long  sides  of  this  structure. 

"  I  was  cordially  invited  to  occupy  one  of  these ; 
but  the  place  is  too  creepy  for  me  I  The  pictures  in 
the  gallery  were  all  done  by  the  deceased  doctor, 
under  the  immediate  direction  of  his  *  spirit  friends.' 
To  look  at  them  (believing  this)  is  to  be  assured 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        79 

that  artists  do  not  go  to  heaven,  since  not  even  the 
poorest  defunct  painter  would  have  perpetrated  such 
monstrosities. 

"  They  all  represent  characters  and  scenes  from 
the  doctor's  bible,  —  known  as  Oahspe,  and  written 
by  him  at  the  dictation  of  spirits.  The  drawing  is 
horrible,  the  coloring  worse ;  and  no  drunkard  with 
delirium  tremens  could  have  conceived  more  fright- 
ful subjects! 

"  Mr.  ,  the  doctor's  successor,  is  a  curious 

compound  of  crank  and  common-sense;  the  latter 
evinced  by  his  corral  and  cattle,  which  we  next 
visited.  I  have  never  seen  so  fine  a  corral  nor 
such  handsome  horses  and  cattle.  They  are  all 
blooded  stock;  many  of  the  cows  and  calves 
having  come  from  the  farm  of  Governor  Morton, 
in  New  York  State.  The  cows  were  beautiful, 
gentle  creatures ;  one  of  them  is  the  largest  *  critter ' 
I  ever  saw,  weighing  no  less  than  fifteen  hundred 
pounds ! 

"  The  county  authorities  —  scandalized  by  the 
meagreness  of  the  Shalam  bill  of  fare  —  compelled 

Mr.  to  enrich  the  children's  diet  with  milk, 

and,  thus  officially  prodded,  he  is  trying  to  give 
them  the  best  in  the  land. 

"  The  stock  department  of  Shalam  seems  to  be 

his  undivided  charge ;    while  Mrs. manages 

the  garden.  She  kindly  showed  us  all  over  it ;  and 
it  is  a  beauty!  With  water  flowing  all  through  it, 
celery,  salisfy,  and  lettuce  all  ready  to  eat,  and 
other  vegetables  growing  finely.  She  gave  us  a 
half  bushel  of  excellent  lettuce,  which  we  all 
enjoyed. 


8o  ALAMO   RANCH 

"  The  Shalam  idea  is  to  take  these  children  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  to  bring  them  up  in  accord- 
ance with  its  own  dietetic  fad  (which  in  many  re- 
spects corresponds  with  that  of  our  own  dream-led 
Alcott),  feeding  them  exclusively  on  a  vegetable 
diet  so  that  they  won't  develop  carnal  and  comba- 
tive tendencies,  and  thus  start  from  them  a  new 
and  improved  race.  Will  they  succeed?  God 
knows;  but  they  seem  to  have  started  wrong;  for 
the  children  are  largely  the  offspring  of  outcasts, 
and  you  can't  expect  grapes  from  thistle  seed. 
However,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  are  both  sin- 
cere, kind-hearted  reformers,  trying  to  do  what 
they  think  right  in  their  own  peculiar  way.  They 
are  doing  no  harm  by  their  experiment  —  hurting 
no  one;  and  if  the  children  turn  out  badly,  it  is  no 
worse  than  they  would  if  left  alone;  and  if  well, 
it  is  a  distinct  triumph  of  brain  over  beastliness. 
It  may  be  well  to  state  that  no  materia  medica  is 
tolerated  at  Shalam.  The  health  of  the  colony  is 
entrusted   absolutely   to   the   *  tender   mercies '    of 

mental  healing.    Mr. is  himself  the  picture  of 

health,  and  says  he  does  not  know  what  it  is  to  feel 
tired.  ( *  They  that  be  whole  need  no  physician ! ' ) 
As  for  the  Lady  of  Shalam,  there  is  a  look  in  her 
face  that  led  me  to  think  she  was  deadly  tired  of 
the  whole  business,  but  was  too  loyal  either  to  her 
dead  or  living  husband  to  *  cry  quits.' 

"  These  children  know  not  the  taste  of  physic. 
All  their  ailments  are  treated  in  strict  accordance 
with  Mental  Science.  They  eat  no  eggs,  fish,  or 
other  animal  matter,  save  the  county-prescribed 
milk,  living  solely  on  grains,  vegetables,  and  fruits ; 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        8i 

and  it  must  be  said  that  they  all  look  extremely 

healthy.     Mr.  informs  us  that  he  rises  daily 

at  three  a.  m.,  goes  directly  to  his  corral  and  milks, 
comes  in  a  little  after  four  and  prepares  the  chil- 
dren's breakfast.  They  are  called  at  four  forty- 
five,  and  breakfast  at  five.  At  five  thirty  devotional 
exercises  begin,  and  last  until  six  thirty,  when  the 
father  of  Shalam  goes  out  and  starts  the  hands  on 
the  farm.  At  eight  the  children  begin  lessons  or 
some  kind  of  mental  training,  which  lasts  till  dinner 
time. 

"  After  dinner  they  run  wild  for  the  rest  of  the 
day. 

"  We  left  Shalam  at  about  five  p.  m.  On  the 
homeward  drive  we  discussed  this  odd  colony,  and 
compared  notes  on  what  we  had  observed.  An 
irreverent  member  of  the  party  thus  summed  up 
the  whole  business  in  his  own  slangy  fashion,  —  *  a 
man  who  all  winter  long  prances  round  in  pajamas, 
making  folks  shiver  to  look  at  him,  ought  to  be 
put  in  an  insane  asylum.'  So  there  you  have  his 
side  of  the  question. 

"  The  original  founder  of  Shalam,  Dr. ,  not 

only  aspired  to  be  a  painter,  but,  as  an  author,  flew 
the  highest  kind  of  a  kite,  giving  to  the  world  no 
less  than  a  new  bible. 

"  A  glimpse  at  its  high-sounding  prospectus  will 
scarce  incite  in  the  sane  and  sober  mind  a  desire  to 
peruse  a  revelation  whose  absurdity  and  fantastic 
assumption  leaves  the  Mormon  bible  far  behind, 
and  before  whose  *  hand  and  glove '  acquaintance 
with  the  *  undiscovered  country '  Swedenborg  him- 
self must  needs  hide  his  diminished  head. 

6 


82  ALAMO    RANCH 

"  Thus  it  runs :  *  Oahspe;  a  new  Bible  in  the 
words  of  Jehovih  and  his  Angel  Embassadors.  A 
synopsis  of  the  Cosmogony  of  the  Universe;  the 
creation  of  planets;  the  creation  of  man;  the  un- 
seen worlds;  the  labor  and  glory  of  gods  and 
goddesses  in  the  etherean  heavens  with  the  new 
commandments  of  Jehovih  to  man  of  the  present 
day.  With  revelations  from  the  second  resurrec- 
tion, found  in  words  in  the  thirty-third  year  of  the 
Kosmon  Era/ 

"  Oahspe' s  claims  are  thus  moderate:  *  As  in  all 
other  bibles  it  is  revealed  that  this  world  was 
created,  so  in  this  bible  it  is  revealed  how  the  Crea- 
tor created  it.  As  other  bibles  have  proclaimed 
heavens  for  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  behold  this 
bible  revealeth  where  these  heavens  are.' 

"  Oahspe  also  kindly  informs  us  *  how  hells  are 
made,  and  of  what  material,'  and  how  the  sinner 
is  in  them  mainly  punished  by  the  forced  inhale- 
ment  of  *  foul  smells,'  —  so  diabolically  foul  are 
these  that  one  is  fain  to  hold  the  nose  in  the  bare 
reading  of  them ! 

"  *  There  is,'  declares  Oahspe,  *  no  such  law  as 
Evolution.  There  is  no  law  of  Selection.'  A 
vegetarian  diet  is  inculcated;  and  we  are  gravely 
informed  that  '  the  spirit  man  takes  his  place  in 
the  first  heaven  according  to  his  diet  while  on 
earth ! ' 

"  A  plan  for  the  founding  of  *  Jehovih's  Kingdom 
on  earth  through  little  children'  is  given.  This 
'  sacred  history '  claims  to  cover  in  its  entirety  no 
less  a  period  of  time  than  eighty-one  thousand 
years.    At  quarter-past  six,"  concludes  our  inform- 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        83 

ant,  "  we  arrived,  tired  and  hungry,  but  glad  to 
have  gone,  and  glad  to  get  back,  leaving  behind  us 
Shalam,  with  its  spirit  picture-gallery  and  its  fan- 
tastic Oahspe,  for  the  more  stable  verities  of  com- 
monplace existence." 


CHAPTER   XI 

IT- was  on  Friday  that  the  Koshare  made  their 
little  excursion  to  the  Shalam  settlement,  and 
the  next  evening  they  gathered  in  full  force,  —  with 
the  exception  of  the  Hemmenshaws  and  the  Har- 
vard man,  who  still  remained  at  Hilton  Ranch, 
losing  thereby  two  of  the  most  interesting  of  the 
Antiquary's  papers ;  but  "  time  and  tide  "  and  Sat- 
urdaiy  clubs  "  stay  for  no  man,"  and  now  came  the 
second  Aztec  paper. 

"  The  Aztec  government,"  began  Mr.  Morehouse, 
"  in  a  few  minor  points  is  said  to  have  borne  some 
resemblance  to  the  aristocratic  system  evolved  by 
the  higher  civilization  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

"  Beyond  a  few  accidental  forms  and  ceremonies, 
the  correspondence  was,  however,  of  the  slightest. 
The  legislative  power  both  in  Mexico  and  Tezcuco 
had  this  feature  of  despotism ;  it  rested  wholly  with 
the  monarch.  The  constitution  of  the  judicial  tribu- 
nals in  some  degree  counteracted  the  evil  tendency 
of  this  despotism.  Supreme  judges  appointed  over 
each  of  the  principal  cities  by  the  crown  had  origi- 
nal and  final  jurisdiction  over  both  civil  and  crimi- 
nal cases.  From  the  sentence  of  such  a  judge  there 
was  no  appeal  to  any  other  tribunal,  not  even  to 
that  of  the  King. 

"  It  is  worthy  of  notice  as  showing  that  some 
sense  of  justice  is  inborn ;  as  even  among  this  com- 


.       A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        85 

paratively  rude  people  we  read  that  under  a  Tez- 
cucan  prince  a  judge  was  put  to  death  for  taking  a 
bribe,  and  another  for  determining  suits  in  his  own 
house  (a  capital  offence  also,  by  law.)  According 
to  a  national  chronicler,  the  statement  of  the  case, 
the  testimony,  and  proceedings  of  the  trial  were 
all  set  forth  by  a  clerk,  in  hieroglyphical  paintings, 
and  handed  to  the  court. 

"  In  Montezuma's  day  the  tardiness  of  legal  pro- 
cesses must  have  gone  miles  beyond  the  red  tape  of 
a  nineteenth-century  court  of  justice. 

"  This  vivid  picture  of  the  pomp  and  circum- 
stance attendant  upon  the  confirmation  of  a  capital 
sentence  by  the  king  is  presented  by  one  of  the 
Mexican  native  chroniclers: 

"  *  The  King,  attended  by  fourteen  great  lords  of 
the  realm,  passed  into  one  of  the  halls  of  justice 
opening  from  the  courtyard  of  the  palace,  which 
was  called  "  the  tribunal  of  God,"  and  was  fur- 
nished with  a  throne  of  pure  gold,  inlaid  with  tur- 
quoises and  other  precious  stones. 

"  *  The  walls  were  hung  with  tapestry,  made  of 
the  hair  of  different  wild  animals,  of  rich  and  vari- 
ous colors,  festooned  by  gold  rings,  and  embroid- 
ered with  figures  of  birds  and  flowers.  Putting  on 
his  mitred  crown,  incrusted  with  precious  stones, 
and  holding,  by  way  of  sceptre,  a  golden  arrow  in 
his  left  hand,  the  King  laid  his  right  upon  a  human 
skull,  placed  for  the  occasion  on  a  stool  before  the 
throne,  and  pronounced  judgment.  No  counsel  was 
employed  and  no  jury.  The  case  had  been  stated 
by  plaintiff  and  defendant,  and,  as  with  us,  sup- 
ported on  either  side  by  witnesses.     The  oath  of 


86  ALAMO    RANCH 

the  accused  was,  with  the  Aztecs,  also  admitted  in 
evidence. 

"  *  The  great  crimes  against  society  were  all  made 
capital. 

"  *  Among  them  murder  (even  of  a  slave)  was 
punishable  with  death.  Adulterers,  as  among  the 
Jews,  were  stoned  to  death.  Thieving,  according 
to  the  degree  of  the  offence,  was  punished  with 
slavery  or  death.  It  was  a  capital  offence  to  re- 
move the  boundaries  of  an  estate,  and  for  a  guar- 
dian not  to  be  able  to  give  a  good  account  of  his 
ward's  property. 

"  *  Prodigals,  who  squandered  their  patrimony, 
were  punished.  Intemperance  in  the  young  was 
punished  with  death ;  in  older  persons,  with  loss  of 
rank,  and  confiscation  of  property. 

"  '  The  marriage  institution  was  held  in  rever- 
ence among  the  Aztecs,  and  its  rites  celebrated  with 
formality.  Polygamy  was  permitted;  but  divorces 
were  not  easily  obtainable.  Slavery  was  sanctioned 
among  the  ancient  Mexicans,  but  with  this  distinc- 
tion unknown  to  any  civilized  slave-holding  com- 
munity: no  one  could  be  born  to  slavery.  The 
children  of  the  slave  were  free.  Criminals,  public 
debtors,  persons  who  from  extreme  poverty  volun- 
tarily resigned  their  freedom,  and  children  who 
were  sold  by  their  parents  through  poverty,  con- 
stituted one  class  of  slaves.  These  were  allowed  to 
have  their  own  families,  to  hold  property,  and  even 
other  slaves.  Prisoners  taken  in  war  were  held  as 
slaves,  and  were  almost  invariably  devoted  to  the 
dreadful  doom  of  sacrifice.  A  refractory  or  vicious 
slave  might  be  led  into  the  market  with  a  collar 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        87 

round  his  neck,  as  an  indication  of  his  badness,  and 
there  publicly  sold.  If  incorrigible,  a  second  sale 
devoted  him  to  sacrifice. 

"  *  Thus  severe,  almost  ferocious,  was  the  Aztec 
code,  framed  by  a  comparatively  rude  people,  who 
relied  rather  on  physical  than  moral  means  for  the 
correction  of  evil.  In  its  profound  respect  for  the 
cardinal  principles  of  morality,  and  a  clear  percep- 
tion of  human  justice,  it  may  favorably  compare 
with  that  of  most  civilized  nations.' 

"  *  In  Mexico,'  says  Prescott,  *  as  in  Egypt,  the 
soldier  shared  with  the  priest  the  highest  considera- 
tion. The  King  must  be  an  experienced  warrior. 
The  tutelary  deity  of  the  Aztecs  was  the  God  of 
war.  The  great  object  of  their  military  expeditions 
was  to  gather  hecatombs  of  captives  for  his  altars.' 
The  Aztec,  like  the  (so-called)  Christian  crusader, 
invoked  the  holy  name  of  religion  as  a  motive  for 
the  perpetration  of  human  butchery.  He,  too,  after 
his  own  crude  fashion,  had  his  order  of  knighthood 
as  the  reward  of  military  prowess.  Whoever  had 
not  reached  it  was  debarred  from  using  ornaments 
on  his  arms  or  on  his  person,  and  was  obliged  to 
wear  a  coarse  white  stuff,  made  from  the  threads 
of  the  aloe,  called  nequen.  Even  the  members  of 
the  royal  family  were  not  excepted  from  this  law. 
As  in  Christian  knighthood,  plain  armor  and  a 
shield  without  device  were  worn  till  the  soldier  had 
achieved  some  doughty  feat  of  chivalry.  After 
twenty  brilliant  actions  officers  might  shave  their 
heads,  and  had,  moreover,  won  the  fantastic  privi- 
lege of  painting  half  of  the  face  red  and  the  other 
half  yellow.     The  panoply  of  the  higher  warriors 


88  ALAMO    RANCH 

is  thus  described.  Their  bodies  were  clothed  with 
a  close  vest  of  quilted  cotton,  so  thick  as  to  be  im- 
penetrable to  the  light  missiles  of  Indian  warfare. 
This  garment  was  found  so  light  and  serviceable 
that  it  was  adopted  by  the  Spaniards. 

"  The  wealthier  chiefs  sometimes  wore,  instead 
of  this  cotton  mail,  a  cuirass  made  of  thin  plates  of 
gold  or  silver.  Over  it  was  thrown  a  surcoat  of 
the  gorgeous  feather  work  in  which  they  excelled. 
Their  helmets  were  sometimes  of  wood,  fashioned 
like  the  heads  of  wild  animals,  and  sometimes  of 
silver,  on  the  top  of  which  waved  a  panache  of 
variegated  plumes,  sprinkled  with  precious  stones. 
They  also  wore  collars,  bracelets,  and  earrings  of 
the  same  rich  materials. 

"  *  A  beautiful  sight  it  was,'  says  one  of  the 
Spanish  conquerors,  *  to  see  them  set  out  on  their 
march,  all  moving  forward  so  gayly,  and  in  so  ad- 
mirable order ! ' 

"  Their  military  code  had  the  cruel  sternness  of 
their  other  laws.  Disobedience  of  orders  was  pun- 
ished with  death. 

"  It  was  death  to  plunder  another's  booty  or  pris- 
oners. It  is  related  of  a  Tezcucan  prince  that,  in  the 
spirit  of  ancient  Roman,  he  put  two  of  his  sons 
to  death  —  after  having  cured  their  wounds  —  for 
violating  this  last-mentioned  law.  A  beneficent  in- 
stitution, which  might  seem  to  belong  to  a  higher 
civilization,  is  said  to  have  flourished  in  this  semi- 
pagan  land. 

"  Hospitals,  we  are  told,  were  established  in  their 
principal  cities  for  the  cure  of  the  sick,  and  as  per- 
manent homes  for  the  disabled  soldier;    and  sur- 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        89 

geons  were  placed  over  them  who  *  were/  says  a 
shrewd  old  chronicler,  *  so  far  better  than  those  in 
Europe  that  they  did  not  protract  the  cure  in  order 
to  increase  the  pay' 

"  The  horse,  mule,  ox,  ass,  or  any  other  beast 
of  burden,  was  unknown  to  the  Aztecs.  Commu- 
nication with  remotest  parts  of  the  country  was 
maintained  by  means  of  couriers,  trained  from 
childhood  to  travel  with  incredible  swiftness. 

"  Post-houses  were  established  on  all  the  great 
roads,  at  about  ten  leagues  distance  apart.  The 
courier,  bearing  his  despatches  in  the  form  of  hiero- 
glyphical  painting,  ran  with  them  to  the  first  sta- 
tion, where  they  were  taken  by  another  messenger, 
and  so  on,  till  they  reached  the  capital.  Despatches 
were  thus  carried  at  the  rate  of  from  one  to  two 
hundred  miles  a  day. 

"  A  traveller  tells  us  of  an  Indian  who,  singly, 
made  a  record  of  a  hundred  miles  in  twenty-four 
hours.  A  still  greater  feat  in  walking  is  recorded 
by  Plutarch.  His  Greek  runner  brought  the  news 
of  a  victory  of  a  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  in  a 
single  day! 

"  In  the  funeral  rites  of  this  ruder  people  one 
traces  a  slight  resemblance  to  those  of  the  more 
cultivated  Greek.  They  burned  the  body  after 
death,  and  the  ashes  of  their  dead,  collected  in 
vases,  were  preserved  in  one  of  the  apartments  of 
the  home.  After  death  they  dressed  the  person's 
body  in  the  peculiar  habiliments  of  his  tutelar  deity. 
It  was  then  strewed  with  pieces  of  paper,  which 
operated  as  a  charm  against  the  dangers  of  the 
dark  road  he  was  to  travel.    If  a  chief  died  he  was 


90  ALAMO    RANCH 

still  spoken  of  as  living.  One  of  his  slaves,  dressed 
in  his  master's  clothes,  was  placed  before  his  corpse. 
The  face  of  this  ill-starred  wretch  was  covered  with 
a  mask,  and  during  a  whole  day  such  homage  as 
had  been  due  to  the  chief  was  paid  to  him.  At 
midnight  the  body  of  the  master  was  burnt,  or  in- 
terred, and  the  slave  who  had  personated  him  was 
sacrificed.  Thereafter,  every  anniversary  of  the 
chief's  birthday  was  celebrated  with  a  feast,  but  his 
death  was  never  mentioned. 

"  The  Spanish  chroniclers  have  told  us  (and  in 
reading  these  statements  due  allowance  must  be 
made  for  their  habit  of  *  stretching  the  truth ' ) 
that  to  the  principal  temple  —  or  Teocallis -— in 
the  capital  five  thousand  priests  were  in  some  way 
attached.  These,  in  their  several  departments,  not 
only  arranged  the  religious  festivals  in  conformity 
to  the  Aztec  calendar,  and  had  charge  of  the  hier- 
oglyphical  paintings  and  oral  traditions  of  the 
nation,  but  undertook  the  responsibility  of  instruct- 
ing its  youth.  While  the  cruel  and  bloody  rites  of 
sacrifice  were  reserved  for  the  chief  dignitaries  of 
the  order,  each  priest  was  allotted  to  the  service 
of  some  particular  diety,  and  had  quarters  provided 
for  him  while  in  attendance  upon  the  service  of  the 
temple. 

"Though  in  many  respects  subject  to  strict  sacer- 
dotal discipline,  Aztec  priests  were  allowed  to 
marry  and  have  families  of  their  own.  Thrice 
during  the  day,  and  once  at  night,  they  were  called 
to  prayers.  They  were  frequent  in  ablutions  and 
vigils,  and  were  required  to  mortify  the  flesh  by 
fasting   and    penance,    in    good    Roman    Catholic 


A   STORY   OF   NEW  MEXICO        91 

fashion,  drawing  their  own  blood  by  flagellation, 
or  by  piercing  with  thorns  of  aloes.  They  also, 
like  Catholic  priests,  administered  the  rites  of  con- 
fession and  absolution;  but  with  this  time-saving 
improvement:  confession  was  made  but  once  in  a 
man's  life,  —  the  long  arrears  of  iniquity,  past  and 
present,  thus  settled,  after  offences  were  held 
inexpiable. 

"  Priestly  absolution  was  received  in  place  of  legal 
punishment  for  offences.  It  is  recorded  that,  long 
after  the  Conquest,  the  simple  natives,  when  under 
arrest,  sought  escape  by  producing  the  certificate 
of  their  confession. 

"  The  address  of  the  Aztec  confessor  to  his  peni- 
tent, with  his  prayer  on  this  occasion,  has  come 
down  to  us.  As  an  evidence  of  the  odd  medley  of 
Christianity  and  paganism  that  marked  this  queer 
civilization,  it  is  quaintly  interesting.  *  O  merciful 
Lord,'  prayed  he,  *  thou  who  knowest  the  secrets 
of  all  hearts,  let  thy  forgiveness  and  favor  descend, 
like  the  pure  waters  of  heaven,  to  wash  away  the 
stains  from  the  soul.  Thou  knowest  that  this  poor 
man  has  sinned,  not  from  his  own  will,  but  from 
the  influences  of  the  sign  under  which  he  was 
born.' 

"  In  his  address  to  the  penitent  he  urges  the  ne- 
cessity of  instantly  procuring  a  slave  for  sacrifice  to 
the  Deity.  After  this  sanguinary  exhortation  he 
enjoins  upon  his  disciple  this  beautiful  precept  of 
Christian  benevolence :  *  Clothe  the  naked,  feed 
the  hungry,  whatever  privations  it  may  cost  thee, 
for,  remember,  their  flesh  is  like  thine,  and  they 
are  men  like  thee.' 


92  ALAMO   RANCH 

"  Sacerdotal  functions  (excepting  those  of  sacri- 
fice) were  allowed  to  women. 

"  At  a  very  tender  age  these  priestess  girls  were 
committed  for  instruction  to  seminaries  of  learn- 
ing, in  which,  it  is  recorded,  a  strict  moral  dis- 
cipline for  both  sexes  was  maintained,  and  that,  in 
some  instances,  offences  were  punished  by  death 
itself. 

"  Thus  were  these  crafty  Mexican  priests  (the 
Jesuits  of  their  age)  enabled  to  mould  young  and 
plastic  minds,  and  to  gain  a  firm  hold  upon  the 
moral  nature  of  their  pupils.  The  priests  had  (as 
we  are  told)  their  own  especial  calendar,  by  which 
they  kept  their  records,  and  regulated,  to  their 
liking,  their  religious  festivals  and  seasons  of  sacri- 
fice, and  made  all  their  astrological  calculations; 
for,  like  many  imperfectly  civilized  peoples,  the 
Aztecs  had  their  astrology.  This  priestly  calendar 
is  said  to  have  roused  the  holy  indignation  of  the 
Spanish  missionaries. 

"  They  condemned  it  as  *  unhallowed,  founded 
neither  on  natural  reason,  nor  on  the  influence  of 
the  planets,  nor  on  the  course  of  the  year;  but 
plainly  the  work  of  necromancy,  and  the  fruit  of  a 
contract  with  the  devil.* 

"  We  are  told  that  not  even  in  ancient  Egypt 
were  the  dreams  of  the  astrologer  more  implicitly 
referred  to  than  in  Aztec  Mexico. 

"  On  the  birth  of  a  child  he  (the  astrologer) 
was  instantly  summoned,  and  the  horoscope — sup- 
posed to  unroll  the  occult  volume  of  destiny  —  was 
hung  upon  by  the  parent  in  trembling  suspense  and 
implicit  faith.     No  Millerite  in  his  ascension  robe, 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        93 

awaiting  the  general  break-up  of  mundane  affairs, 
ever  looked  forward  with  more  confidence  to  the 
final  catastrophe  than  did  the  ancient  Mexican  to 
the  predicted  destruction  of  the  world  at  the  ter- 
mination of  one  of  their  four  successive  cycles  of 
fifty-two  years. 

"  Prescott  gives  us  this  romantic  account  of  the 
festival  marking  that  traditional  epoch: 

"  *  The  cycle  would  end  in  the  latter  part  of  De- 
cember; as  the  diminished  light  gave  melancholy 
presage  of  that  time  when  the  sun  was  to  be  effaced 
from  the  heavens,  and  the  darkness  of  chaos  settle 
over  the  habitable  globe,  these  apprehensions  in- 
creased, and  on  the  arrival  of  the  five  "  unlucky 
days  "  that  closed  the  year  they  abandoned  them- 
selves to  despair.  They  broke  in  pieces  the  little 
images  of  their  household  gods,  in  whom  they  no 
longer  trusted. 

"  *  The  holy  fires  were  suffered  to  go  out  in  the 
temples,  and  none  were  lighted  in  their  own  dwell- 
ings. Their  furniture  and  domestic  utensils  were 
destroyed,  and  their  garments  torn  in  pieces,  and 
everything  was  thrown  into  disorder.  On  the 
evening  of  the  last  day,  a  procession  of  priests 
moved  from  the  capital  towards  a  lofty  mountain, 
about  two  leagues  distant.  They  carried  with  them 
as  a  victim  for  the  sacrificial  altar  the  flower  of 
their  captives,  and  an  apparatus  for  kindling  the 
new  fire,  the  success  of  which  was  an  augury  for 
the  renewal  of  the  cycle. 

"  *  On  the  funeral  pile  of  their  slaughtered  victim, 
the  new  fire  was  started  by  means  of  sticks  placed 
on  the  victim's  wounded  breast.    As  the  light  soared 


94  ALAMO    RANCH 

towards  heaven  on  the  midnight  sky,  a  shout  of  joy 
and  triumph  burst  forth  from  the  multitudes,  who 
covered  the  hills,  the  terraces  of  the  temples,  and 
the  housetops  with  eyes  anxiously  bent  upon  the 
mountain  of  sacrifice.  Couriers  with  torches 
lighted  at  the  blazing  beacon  bore  the  cheering  ele- 
ment far  and  near;  and  long  before  the  sun  rose 
to  pursue  his  accustomed  track,  giving  assurance 
that  a  new  cycle  had  commenced  its  march,  altar 
and  hearthstone  again  brightened  with  flame  for 
leagues  around. 

"  *  All  was  now  festivity.  Joy  had  replaced  de- 
spair. Houses  were  cleansed  and  refurnished. 
Dressed  in  their  gayest  apparel,  and  crowned 
with  chaplets  and  garlands  of  flowers,  the  people 
thronged  in  gay  procession  to  the  temples  to  offer 
up  their  oblations  and  thanksgivings.  It  was  the 
great  secular  national  festival,  which  few  alive  had 
witnessed  before,  or  could  expect  to  see  again.' 

"  Although  we  find  in  the  counsels  of  an  Aztec 
father  to  his  son  the  following  assertion,  *  For  the 
multiplication  of  the  species  God  ordained  one 
man  only  for  one  woman,'  polygamy  was  neverthe- 
less permitted  among  this  people,  chiefly  among  the 
wealthiest  classes. 

"  Marriage  was  recognized  as  a  religious  cere- 
mony, and  its  obligations  strictly  enjoined.  Their 
women,  we  are  told,  were  treated  with  a  consider- 
ation uncommon  among  Indian  tribes.  It  is  re- 
corded that  their  tranquil  days  were  diversified  by 
the  feminine  occupations  of  spinning,  feather-work, 
and  embroidery,  and  that  they  also  beguiled  the 
hours  by  the  rehearsal  of  traditionary  tales  and 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        95 

ballads,  and  partook  with  their  lords  in  social 
festivities. 

"  Their  entertainments  seem  to  have  been  grand 
and  costly  affairs.  Numerous  attendants,  of  both 
sexes,  waited  at  the  banquet ;  the  halls  were  scented 
with  perfumes,  flowers  strewed  the  courts,  and 
were  profusely  distributed  among  the  arriving 
guests. 

"As  they  took  their  seats  at  the  board,  cotton 
napkins  and  ewers  of  water  were  placed  before 
them;  for,  as  in  the  heroic  days  of  Greece,  the 
ceremony  of  ablution  before  and  after  eating  was 
punctiliously  observed  by  the  Aztecs.  The  table 
was  well  provided  with  meats,  especially  game, 
among  which  our  own  Thanksgiving  bird,  the  tur- 
key, was  conspicuous.  These  more  solid  dishes 
were  flanked  by  others  of  vegetables,  and  with 
fruits  of  every  variety  found  on  the  North  Ameri- 
can Continent. 

"  The  different  viands  were  skilfully  prepared, 
with  delicate  sauces  and  pungent  seasoning,  of 
which  the  Mexicans  were  especially  fond.  They 
were  further  regaled  with  confections  and  pastry; 
and  the  whole  was  crowned  by  an  *  afterclap '  of 
tobacco  mixed  with  aromatic  substances,  to  be  en- 
joyed in  pipes,  or  in  the  form  of  cigars,  inserted  in 
holders  of  tortoise  shell  or  silver.  The  meats  were 
kept  warm  by  chaflng-dishes.  The  table  was  orna- 
mented with  vases  of  silver  (and  sometimes  of 
gold)  of  delicate  workmanship. 

"  We  are  told  by  the  chroniclers  that  agriculture 
was,  before  the  Conquest,  in  an  advanced  state. 
There  were  peculiar  deities  to  preside  over  it,  and 


96  ALAMO    RANCH 

the  names  of  the  months  and  of  the  religious  fes- 
tivals had  more  or  less  reference  to  it.  The  public 
taxes  were  often  paid  in  agricultural  produce. 
As  among  the  Pueblos,  Aztec  women  took  part  in 
only  the  lighter  labors  of  the  field,  —  as  the  scatter- 
ing of  the  seed,  the  husking  of  the  ripened  corn. 

"  Maize,  or  Indian  corn,  the  great  staple  of  the 
North  American  continent,  grew  freely  along  the 
valleys,  and  up  the  steep  sides  of  the  Cordilleras, 
to  the  high  table-land.  Aztecs  were,  we  are  told, 
well  instructed  in  its  uses,  and  their  women  as 
skilled  in  its  preparation  as  the  most  expert  New 
England  or  Southern  housewife. 

"  In  these  equinoctial  regions,  its  gigantic  stalk 
afforded  a  saccharine  matter  which  supplied  them 
with  a  sugar  but  little  inferior  to  that  of  the  cane 
itself  (which,  after  the  Conquest,  was  introduced 
among  them).  Passing  by  all  their  varieties  of 
superbly  gorgeous  flowers,  of  luxuriously  growing 
plants,  many  of  them  of  medicinal  value,  and  since 
introduced  from  Mexico  to  Europe,  we  come  to 
that  '  miracle  of  nature,'  the  great  Mexican  aloe,  or 
maguey,  which  was,  in  short,  meat,  drink,  clothing, 
and  writing  material  for  the  Aztec,  as  from  its 
leaves  was  made  their  paper,  somewhat  resembling 
Egyptian  papyrus,  but  more  soft  and  beautiful. 

"  Specimens  of  this  paper  still  exist,  preserving 
their  original  freshness,  and  holding  yet  unim- 
paired the  brilliancy  of  color  in  hieroglyphical 
painting.  It  is  averred  that  the  Aztecs  were  as 
well  acquainted  with  the  uses  of  their  mineral  as 
of  their  vegetable  kingdom,  deftly  working  their 
mines  of  silver,  lead,  and  tin.     It  has,  however. 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        97 

been  contended  by  Wilson,  in  his  '  New  Conquest 
of  Mexico,'  that,  in  spite  of  Cortez's  statement  to 
the  contrary,  *  it  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  the 
Spaniards  found  the  Aztecs  in  the  possession  of 
silver,  smce  its  mining  requires  a  combination  of 
science  and  mechanical  power  unknown  and  impos- 
sible to  their  crude  civilization/  He  considerately 
allows  them  the  capability  of  gathering  gold  from 
their  rich  soil. 

"  Prescott,  on  the  contrary,  tells  us  that  *  they 
opened  veins  for  the  procurement  of  silver  in  the 
solid  rock,  and  that  the  traces  of  their  labors  in 
these  galleries  furnished  the  best  indications  for 
the  early  Spanish  miners/ 

"  Who  shall  decide  when  doctors  disagree  ? 
Not,  indeed,  a  Koshare,  whose  laudable  purpose  it 
is  to  eschew  the  wearisome  *  gradgrinds  '  of  history, 
and  accept  the  infinitely  more  charming  conclusions 
of  the  romancer. 

"  Gold,  say  the  chroniclers,  was  easily  gleaned 
from  the  beds  of  their  rivers,  and  cast  into  bars,  or 
in  the  form  of  dust,  made  part  of  the  regular  tribute 
of  the  southern  provinces  of  Montezuma's  empire. 
They  cast,  also,  delicately  and  curiously  wrought 
vessels  of  gold.  Though  their  soil  was  impreg- 
nated with  iron,  its  use  was  unknown  to  this  people. 
As  a  substitute  for  this  metal,  they  used,  for  their 
tools,  a  bronze  made  from  an  alloy  of  tin  and  cop- 
per, or  of  itzli,  —  a  dark  transparent  metal,  found 
in  abundance  in  their  hills.  With  the  former  they 
could  cut  the  hardest  substances,  such  as  emeralds 
and  amethysts. 

"  It  has  been  contended  that  an  ignorance  of  the 
7 


98  ALAMO    RANCH 

use  of  iron  must  necessarily  have  kept  the  Mexican 
in  a  low  state  of  civilization.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  urged  that  iron,  if  even  known,  was  but  little  in 
use  among  the  ancient  Egyptians,  whose  mighty 
monuments  were  hewn  with  tools  of  bronze,  while 
their  weapons  and  domestic  utensils  were  of  the 
same  material.  For  the  ordinary  purposes  of  do- 
mestic life,  the  ancient  Mexicans  made  earthen- 
ware, and  fashioned  cups,  bowls,  and  vases  of 
lacquered  wood,  impervious  to  wet,  and  gorgeously 
colored. 

"  Among  their  dyes,  obtained  from  both  mineral 
and  vegetable  substances,  was  the  rich  crimson  of 
the  cochineal,  the  modern  rival  of  the  far-famed 
Tyrian  purple.  Later,  this  coloring  material  was 
introduced  into  Europe,  from  Mexico,  where  the 
curious  cochineal  insect  was  nourished  with  great 
care  on  plantations  of  cactus. 

"  The  Aztecs  were  thus  enabled  to  give  a  bril- 
liant coloring  to  their  webs  of  cotton,  which  staple, 
in  the  warnier  regions  of  their  country,  they  raised 
in  abundance.  With  their  cotton  fabrics,  manufac- 
tured of  every  degree  of  fineness,  they  had  the 
original  art  of  interweaving  the  delicate  hair  of 
rabbits  and  other  animals,  which  made  a  cloth  of 
great  warmth  as  well  as  beauty. 

"  On  this  they  often  laid  a  rich  embroidery  of 
birds,  flowers,  or  some  other  fanciful  device.  It  is 
supposed  that  the  Aztec  *  silk,'  mentioned  by  Cortez, 
was  nothing  more  than  this  fine  texture  of  cotton, 
hair,  and  down. 

"  But  the  art  in  which  they  especially  excelled 
was  their   plumage  or   feather-work.      Some   few 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO        99 

existing  specimens  of  this  ancient  art  (one  of  them 
a  vestment  said  to  have  been  worn  by  Montezuma 
himself)  have,  we  are  told,  *  all  the  charm  of  Flor- 
entine mosaic' 

The  gorgeous  plumage  of  tropical  birds,  espe- 
cially of  the  parrot-tribe,  afforded  every  variety  of 
color,  and  the  fine  and  abundant  down  of  the  hum- 
ming-bird supplied  them  with  a  finish  of  soft  aerial 
tints.  The  feathers  pasted  on  a  fine  cotton  web 
were  wrought  into  dresses  for  the  wealthy.  Hang- 
ings for  apartments  and  ornaments  for  the  temples 
were  thus  fashioned.  Labor  was  held  in  honorable 
estimation  among  this  people.  An  aged  Aztec  chief 
thus  addressed  his  son :  '  Apply  thyself  to  agricul- 
ture, or  to  feather-work,  or  some  other  honorable 
calling.  Thus  did  your  ancestors  before  you.  Else, 
how  could  they  have  provided  for  themselves  and 
their  families?  Never  was  it  heard  that  nobility 
alone  was  able  to  maintain  its  possessor.' 

"  The  occupation  of  the  merchant  was  held  by 
them  in  high  respect.  These  were  of  prime  consid- 
eration in  the  body  politic,  and  enjoyed  many  of  the 
most  essential  advantages  of  an  hereditary  aris- 
tocracy. Mexico,  as  their  abundant  use  among  the 
Aztecs  testifies,  is  especially  rich  in  precious  stones. 
It  is  the  land  of  the  emerald,  the  amethyst,  the  tur- 
quoise, and  the  topaz ;  and  that  superbest  of  gems, 
the  fire  opal,  is  native  to  its  generous  soil. 

"  One  of  Cortez's  wedding  gifts  to  his  second 
bride  is  thus  described :  '  This  was  five  emeralds 
of  wonderful  size  and  brilliancy.  These  jewels  had 
been  cut  by  the  Aztecs  into  the  shapes  of  flowers, 
and  fishes,  and  into  other  fanciful  forms,  with  an 


100  ALAMO    RANCH 

exquisite  style  of  workmanship  which  enhanced 
their  original  value.' 

"  It  was  gossiped  at  court  that  the  Queen  of 
Charles  the  Fifth  had  an  eye  to  these  magnificent 
gems,  and  that  the  preference  given  by  Cortez  to 
his  fair  bride  had  an  unfavorable  influence  on  the 
Conqueror^  s  future  fortunes.  Among  the  *  royal 
fifth '  of  the  Mexican  spoils  sent  by  Cortez  to  the 
Spanish  Emperor,  we  are  told  of  a  still  more  won- 
derful emerald.  It  was  cut  in  a  pyramidal  shape, 
and  of  so  extraordinary  a  size  that  the  base  of  it 
was  affirmed  to  have  been  as  broad  as  the  palm  of 
the  hand. 

"  This  rich  collection  of  gold  and  jewelry, 
wrought  into  many  rare  and  fanciful  forms,  was 
captured  on  its  road  to  Spain  by  a  French  privateer, 
and  is  said  to  have  gone  into  the  treasury  of  Fran- 
cis the  First.  Francis,  we  are  told,  looking  envi- 
ously on  the  treasures  drawn  by  his  rival  monarch 
from  his  colonial  domains,  expressed  a  desire  to 
*  see  the  clause  in  Adam's  testament,  which  entitled 
his  brothers  of  Spain  and  Portugal  to  divide  the 
New  World  between  them.' 

"  The  Aztec  picture  writing,  rude  though  it  was, 
seems  to  have  served  the  nation  in  its  early  and 
imperfect  state  of  civilization. 

"  By  means  of  it,  as  an  auxiliary  to  oral  tradi- 
tion, their  mythology,  laws,  calendars,  and  rituals 
were  carried  back  to  an  early  period  of  their 
civilization. 

"  Their  manuscripts,  the  material  for  which  has 
already  been  described,  were  most  frequently  made 
into  volumes,  in  which  the  paper  was  shut  up  like 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       loi 

a  folding  screen.  With  a  tablet  of  wood  at  each 
extremity,  they  thus,  when  closed,  had  the  appear- 
ance of  books.  A  few  of  these  Mexican  manu- 
scripts have  been  saved,  and  are  carefully  preserved 
in  the  public  libraries  of  European  capitals.  The 
most  important  of  these  painted  records,  for  the 
light  it  throws  on  the  Aztec  institutions,  is  pre- 
served in  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford.  The 
greater  part  of  these  writings,  having  no  native 
interpretation  annexed  to  them,  cannot  now  be 
unriddled. 

"  A  savant  who,  in  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  travelled  extensively  through  their 
country,  asserts  that,  *  so  completely  had  every 
vestige  of  their  ancient  language  been  swept  away 
from  the  land,  not  an  individual  could  be  found 
who  could  afford  him  the  least  clue  to  the  Aztec 
hieroglyphics.' 

"  Some  few  Aztec  compositions,  which  may  pos- 
sibly owe  their  survival  to  oral  tradition,  still 
survive.  These  are  poetical  remains,  in  the  form 
of  odes,  or  relics  of  their  more  elaborate  prose,  and 
consist  largely  of  prayers  and  public  discourses, 
that  show  that,  in  common  with  other  native  ora- 
tors, the  Aztecs  paid  much  attention  to  rhetorical 
effect.  The  Aztec  hieroglyphics  included  both  the 
representative  and  symbolical  forms  of  picture- 
writing. 

"  They  had  various  emblems  for  expressing  such 
things  as,  by  their  nature,  could  not  be  directly 
represented  by  the  painter;  as,  for  example,  the 
years,  months,  days,  the  seasons,  the  elements,  the 
heavens,  and  so  on. 


102  ALAMO    RANCH 

"A  serpent  typified  time,  a  tongue  denoted  speak- 
ing, a  footprint  travelling,  a  man  sitting  on  the 
ground  an  earthquake. 

"  The  names  of  persons  were  often  significant  of 
their  adventures  and  achievement. 

"  Summing  up  this  account  of  Aztec  civilization, 
we  find  that,  although  of  the  countries  from  which 
Toltec  and  Aztec  in  turn  issued  tradition  has  lost 
the  record,  it  is  nevertheless  affirmed,  by  so  reli- 
able an  historian  as  Humboldt,  that  the  former 
introduced  into  Mexico  the  cultivation  of  maize 
and  cotton;  that  they  built  cities,  made  roads,  and 
constructed  pyramids.  *  They  knew/  says  this 
authoritative  historian,  *  the  uses  of  hieroglyphical 
paintings;  they  could  work  metals,  and  cut  the 
hardest  stones;  and  they  had  a  solar  system  more 
perfect  than  that  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans.' 

"  After  their  mysterious  disappearance  from  the 
table-lands  of  Mexico,  the  Aztecs,  who  succeeded 
them,  gradually  amalgamated  all  that  was  best  in 
their  civilization,  and,  engrafting  upon  it  their  own, 
became  as  a  nation  what  they  were  in  the  time  of 
the  second  Montezuma,  when  Cortez  and  his  con- 
quering army  treacherously  swept  their  civilization 
from  the  face  of  the  earth. 

"  A  thoughtful  traveller  still  finds  in  Mexico 
traces  of  this  people,  its  early  possessors. 

"  The  Mexicans,  in  their  whole  aspect,"  he  ob- 
serves, "  give  a  traveller  the  idea  of  persons  of 
decayed  fortune,  who  have  once  been  more  pros- 
perous and  formidable  than  now,  or  who  had  been 
the  offshoot  of  a  more  refined  and  forcible  people." 


CHAPTER    XII 

IT  was  but  the  day  after  the  delivery  of  this  most 
interesting  paper  by  Mr.  Morehouse,  that  the 
laggards  from  Hilton  Ranch,  who  had  missed  it, 
and  the  preceding  one,  returned  to  their  places  at 
the  dinner-table;  and  on  that  very  afternoon  Miss 
Paulina,  with  all  due  formality,  announced  the 
engagement  of  her  niece  to  Mr.  Roger  Smith. 
Recovered  from  the  first  shock  of  surprise,  the 
Koshare  celebrated  the  betrothal  by  a  pink  after- 
noon tea,  and  made  such  slight  engagement  offer- 
ings as  were  found  available,  remote  from 
silversmith,  florist,  and  bric-a-brac  dealer. 

The  ladies  gave  bureau  scarfs,  table  doilies,  and 
centre-pieces  ad  infinitum;  the  Antiquary  bestowed 
a  bit  of  Mexican  pottery  dating  back  to  the  "  cliff- 
dwellers."  Leon  framed  the  photographs  of  the 
handsome  pair  in  Mexican  canes,  as  an  engagement 
gift;  and  the  most  despondent  "lunger"  of  them 
all  had  a  kindly  wish  for  their  young  and  happy 
fellow-boarders,  setting  out  on  that  beautiful  life- 
journey  to  whose  untimely  end  he,  himself,  was 
sadly  tending. 

Among  the  more  observing  of  the  Koshare,  much 
wonder  was  expressed  at  the  slow  mending  of 
Roger  Smith's  sprained  ankle.  It  was  at  the  en- 
gagement tea  that  Miss  Paulina  innocently  said,  in 


I04      ',  ALAMO    RANCH 

response  to  these  strictures,  "  Yes,  it  did  take  a  long 
time  to  cure  dear  Roger's  sprain.  Years  ago,"  con- 
tinued the  good  lady,  "  I  had  the  same  accident ; 
and,  if  I  remember  rightly,  in  less  than  a  fort- 
night after  the  sprain  I  was  walking  without  any 
crutches.  One  would  think  now,"  she  went  on, 
"  that  in  this  lovely  dry  climate  a  sprain  would 
mend  rapidly;  but,  though  I  did  my  very  best,  the 
result  was  far  less  prompt  than  I  had  hoped." 

"  Sprains  differ,"  interposed  the  audacious  sub- 
ject of  these  remarks,  unawed  by  the  disapproving 
glances  of  his  betrothed ;  "  the  surgeons  tell  us 
that  fractures  are  both  simple  and  compound. 
Mine,  dear  Miss  Hemmenshaw,  was  undoubtedly 
compound." 

This  he  said  by  way  of  accounting  to  his  friends 
for  his  tardy  convalescence.  To  himself  he  thought, 
looking  at  this  kind,  unsuspicious  new  auntie,  "Dear, 
delicious  old  goose !  " 

This  is  what  the  niece  said  when,  later,  she  got 
this .  incorrigible  lover  to  herself :  "  Roger,  I  am 
quite  convinced  that  your  conscience  is  seared  with 
a  hot  iron,  whatever  that  process,  supposed  to  indi- 
cate utter  moral  callousness,  may  be." 

"  My  dear  girl,"  laughed  the  unabashed  culprit, 
"  I  am,  as  you  know  and  deplore,  a  good  Catholic, 
and  consequently  hold  with  the  astute  Jesuit  Fathers 
that  the  end  justifies  the  means." 


CHAPTER    XIII 

IT  was  in  the  sunny,  lengthened  days  of  early 
March  that  the  Antiquary,  the  Journalist,  the 
star  boarder,  and  the  Grumbler  undertook  their 
long-projected  trip  to  the  Sacramento  Mountains, 
there  to  visit  the  Government  Reservation,  nestled 
in  the  sheltered  Mescalero  Valley,  which  gives  its 
name. 

Well  equipped  with  camping  conveniences,  the 
four  Koshares  set  forth  on  their  journey  of  one 
hundred  and  twenty-five  miles. 

It  was  their  intention  to  "  make  haste  slowly," 
and  nothing  could  better  have  suited  the  leisurely 
pair  of  Mexican  horses,  and  the  equally  easy-going 
Mexican  driver,  who,  with  his  team,  had  been  hired 
for  the  expedition.  The  first  night  of  their  journey 
was  passed  beneath  the  open  sky,  with  the  rounded 
moon  riding  clear  and  fair  above  them,  and  the 
desert  of  sand  and  sage-brush  all  about  them.  On 
the  second,  they  lodged  at  the  solitary  dwelling  of 
a  ranchman,  whose  nearest  neighbor  was  thirty-five 
miles  distant. 

At  the  journey's  end,  they  were  cordially  received 
by  Lieutenant  Stottler,  Government  Agent  at  the 
Mescalero  Reservation,  and  throughout  their  visit 
were  treated  by  him  with  a  kindly  hospitality  and 
a  genial  courtesy  beyond  praise. 


io6  ALAMO    RANCH 

Of  the  Apache,  now  transformed  by  the  iron 
hand  of  civiHzation  from  a  blood-thirsty  savage  to 
a  passably  decent  and  partially  self-supporting  mem- 
ber of  the  republic,  it  has  been  aptly  said  that  Na- 
ture has  given  him  "  the  ear  of  the  cat,  the  cunning 
of  the  fox,  and  the  ferocious  courage  and  brutish- 
ness  of  the  gray  wolf." 

The  whole  vast  realm  of  his  native  ranges,  desert 
though  they  seem,  are  known  to  teem  with  ever- 
present  supplies  for  his  savage  menu. 

There  are  found  fat  prairie  mice,  plump  angle- 
worms, gray  meat  of  rattlesnake  and  lizard,  and  of 
leathery  bronco,  —  all  easy-coming  ^  grist  for  that 
*  unpernickety '  mill,"  his  hungry  stomach. 

Is  he  minded  for  a  vegetable  diet,  for  him  the 
mescal  lavishly  grows;  and  the  bean  of  mesquite, 
reduced  to  meal,  makes  him  palatable  cakes.  Fruit 
of  Spanish  bayonet  dried  in  the  sun,  and  said  thus 
to  resemble  dates,  is  at  hand  for  his  dessert;  and 
of  mountain  acorns  alone  he  may  make  an  excel- 
lent and  nutritious  meal. 

From  the  primeval  years  this  belligerent  savage 
is  said  to  have  especially  harried  that  dismal  waste 
in  New  Mexico  known  as  Jornado  del  Muerta, 
"  Journey  of  Death." 

This  awful  desert  is  declared  to  be  literally  "  the 
battle-ground  of  the  elements."  In  the  winter  it  is 
made  fearful  by  raging  storms  of  wind  and  snow, 
in  which  frozen  men  and  animals  leave  their  bodies, 
as  carrion  prey,  to  the  hungry  mountain  wolf.  In 
later  times  it  is  "  the  skulking  place  of  unscrupu- 
lous outlaws,  and  many  a  murdered  traveller  makes 
good  the  name  it  bears." 


A    STORY    OF   NEW    MEXICO       107 

It  is  thus  finely  depicted  by  a  modern  traveller: 
"  Near  the  southern  boundary  of  New  Mexico 
stretches  a  shadeless,  waterless  plateau,  nearly  one 
hundred  miles  long,  and  from  five  to  thirty  miles 
wide,  resembling  the  steppes  of  northern  Asia. 
Geologists  tell  us  this  is  the  oldest  country  on  the 
earth,  except,  perhaps,  the  backbone  of  Central 
Africa;  at  least,  the  one  which  has  longest  been 
exposed  to  the  influence  of  agents  now  in  action. 
The  grass  is  low  and  mossy,  with  a  wasted  look; 
the  shrubs  are  soap-weed  and  bony  cactus;  the 
very  stones  are  like  the  scoria  of  a  furnace.  It  is 
sought  by  no  flight  of  bird;  no  bee  or  fly  buzzes 
on  the  empty  air;  and,  save  the  lizard  and  horned 
frog,  there  is  no  breath  of  living  thing.  One  might 
fancy  that  this  dreary  waste  had  served  its  time, 
had  been  worn  out,  unpeopled,  and  forgotten." 

In  the  (not  long  past)  day  of  his  power  and 
might,  to  steal  and  murder,  under  the  show  of 
friendship;  to  beat  out  the  brains  of  unsuspecting 
men;  to  carry  off  to  captivity,  worse  than  death, 
the  women  and  larger  children,  was,  with  the 
Apache,  merely  a  question  of  opportunity. 

In  the  Apache  war  —  ending  in  October,  1880, 
and  lasting  but  a  year  and  a  half,  —  it  is  estimated 
that  more  than  four  hundred  white  persons  were 
scalped  and  tortured  to  death  with  devilish  ingenuity. 

The  details  of  Indian  fighting  are  everywhere 
much  the  same ;  but  in  strategy  and  cruelty  that  of 
the  Apache  surpasses  all  the  sons  of  men.  Victorio, 
the  chief  who  led  the  war  with  his  band,  was  sur- 
rounded at  last,  and  captured,  and  killed  in  the 
mountains  of  Mexico. 


io8  ALAMO    RANCH 

With  the  death  of  Victorio  (whose  only  son, 
Washington,  was  shot  in  the  fall  of  1879,  leaving 
no  one  to  succeed  him)  the  cause  was  lost. 

His  wife,  we  are  told,  after  Victorious  death,  cut 
off  her  hair,  in  the  old  Greek  fashion,  and  buried 
it,  —  an  offering  to  the  spirit  of  this  fallen  chief, 
to  whom  (devil  though  he  was)  she  was  devoted. 

It  is  told  of  Rafael,  one  of  Victorious  band,  that 
when  maddened  by  tiswin  (an  intoxicant  made  by 
the  Indian  from  corn),  he  fatally  stabbed  his  wife, 
and,  after  her  death,  overcome  with  penitence,  sac- 
rificed all  his  beads  and  most  of  his  clothes  to  the 
"  dear  departed,"  cut  his  and  his  children's  hair 
short,  and  sheared  the  manes  and  tails  of  his  horses. 
These  manifestations  of  anguish  over,  he  went  up 
into  a  high  hill,  and  howled  with  uplifted  hands. 

Women  are  regarded  by  the  Apaches  as  an  in- 
cumbrance. They  are  of  so  little  account  that  they 
are  not  even  given  a  name.  Mothers  mourn  at  their 
birth. 

The  Indians  occupying  a  reservation  of  seven 
hundred  square  miles  in  southern  New  Mexico, 
and  numbering,  at  the  present  writing,  about  four 
hundred  and  fifty  souls,  are  typical  Apaches,  and 
closely  related  by  blood  to  the  other  Apaches  of 
Arizona  and  New  Mexico.  They  exhibit  the  usual 
race  characteristics,  —  of  ignorance,  stubbornness, 
superstition,  cruelty,  laziness,  and  treachery. 

In  December,  1894,  Lieutenant  Stottler  first  as- 
sumed the  charge  of  these  Indians.  In  spite  of  the 
fact  that  for  many  years  a  generous  government 
had  supplied  them  annually  with  rations,  clothing, 
working  implements,  etc.,  they  were  then  living  in 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       109 

tepees,  or  brush  shelters,  on  the  side  hills;  clad  in 
breech-clout  and  blanket,  wearing  paint,  and  long 
hair,  and  thanklessly  receiving  their  rations  of  beef, 
flour,  coffee,  sugar,  salt,  soap,  and  baking-powder. 
A  few  of  them  condescended  to  raise  corn  and  oats ; 
but  acres  of  tillable  land  on  the  reservation  were 
still  unused. 

"  They  were,"  says  Lieutenant  Stottler,  in  an  able 
and  interesting  report,  "  not  only  contented  with 
this  order  of  things,  but  desirous  and  determined 
to  prolong  it  indefinitely." 

Fifty  per  cent  of  their  children  were  in  school, 
but  the  parents  were  wholly  opposed  to  their  edu- 
cation. Among  them  were  twenty  strong,  broad- 
shouldered  Indian  adults,  educated  at  the  expense 
of  thousands  of  dollars,  yet  still  running  about  the 
reservation  in  breech-clout  and  blanket,  wilder  than 
any  uneducated  Indian  on  it. 

The  girls  were  held  from  school,  and  at  ten  and 
twelve  years  of  age  were  traded  for  ponies,  into  a 
bondage  worse  than  any  known  slavery. 

Fourteen  Indian  policemen  are  allowed  the  agent. 
Their  especial  duty  is  to  see  that  the  herd  of  beef 
cattle  for  their  own  eating  is  properly  cared  for. 
The  police,  each  had  a  cabin  to  live  in;  but  each, 
in  scorn  of  this  civilized  innovation,  had  carefully 
planted  alongside  of  his  cabin  a  tepee  to  sleep  in. 
To  get  these  policemen  into  civilized  clothing,  under 
threat  of  duress,  and  to  order  all  tepees  away  from 
their  cabins,  was  the  agent's  first  move.  Next,  it 
was  decided  that  all  children  five  years  old  and  up- 
wards must  be  placed  in  school  at  the  beginning  of 
the  school  year,  whether  the  parents  were  willing 


no  ALAMO    RANCH 

or  not.  Every  Indian  man  was  ordered  to  select  a 
piece  of  land,  and  put  in  his  posts.  To  break  up 
the  influence  of  chiefs  or  bands,  who,  claiming  the 
whole  country,  deterred  the  people  from  work,  by 
threats,  appears  to  have  been  up-hill  work ;  "  but 
now,"  says  the  agent  (in  1897),  "there  are  no 
chiefs,  and  *  work  or  starve '  is  the  policy."  For- 
merly, government  supplies  of  clothing,  wagons, 
harness,  and  utensils,  as  soon  as  issued,  had  been 
packed  on  burros  and  sold  for  a  mere  song  to 
settlers  about  the  reservation.  This  abuse  was 
promptly  stopped,  as  also  was  the  making  of  tiswin. 

This  native  drink,  made  from  Indian  corn,  is 
said  to  be  more  maddening  in  its  effect  than  any 
other  known  intoxicant;  Indians  brutalized  by 
tiswin  fought,  as  do  our  own  drunkards,  and  often 
wounded  or  killed  each  other.  For  corn  to  make 
this  detestable  beverage,  an  Indian  would  trade 
away  the  last  article  in  his  possession. 

It  was  proclaimed  by  the  agent  that  the  maker  of 
this  poison  would  be  imprisoned  for  six  months,  at 
hard  labor,  in  the  guard-house.  This  stopped  its 
manufacture,  and  there  are  no  longer  drunken  In- 
dians at  the  reservation.  Occasionally  they  still  get 
liquor  at  Las  Cruces,  when  sent  there  for  freight. 

All  supplies  are  hauled  from  the  railroad  over- 
land. The  distance  is  one  hundred  and  ten  miles; 
about  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  are  annually 
brought  in  this  way  to  the  reservation,  and  without 
harm  or  loss.  Much  of  the  Indian's  savagery  lies 
(like  Samson's  strength)  in  his  hair;  to  his  long, 
matted  tresses  he  clings  tenaciously.  As  a  begin- 
ning, Lieutenant  Stottler  induced  one  old  fellow  — 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       iii 

a  policeman  —  with  the  reward  of  a  five-dollar  gold 
piece  to  cut  his  precious  locks.  Thus  metamor- 
phosed, he  became  "  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes."  His 
squaw  made  life  a  burden  to  him;  and  thus  bad- 
gered, he,  in  turn,  pestered  the  agent  to  get  the  en- 
tire police  force  to  cut  theirs. 

It  was  long  before  the  general  consent  to  part 
with  these  cherished  tresses  could  be  won;  and  it 
became  necessary  to  put  some  of  the  Indians  in  the 
guard-house  to  accomplish  this  reform.  Finally, 
orders  were  asked  from  Washington,  and  received, 
compelling  submission  to  the  shearing. 

When  the  Indians  saw  the  Washington  order, 
they  all  gave  in,  with  the  exception  of  a  last  man, 
who  had  to  be  "  thumped  into  it."  Their  hair  well 
cut,  a  raid  was  made  on  breech-clout  and  blanket. 
Now  they  all  appear  in  civilized  clothing.  This 
seems  to  have  been  the  turning-point  in  their 
wildness. 

"  Now,"  says  the  agent,  "  they  come  and  ask  for 
scissors  and  comb  to  cut  their  hair,  and  volunteer 
the  information  that  they  were  *  fools  to  oppose  it.'  " 

About  half  a  dozen  of  these  Indians  were  found 
by  Lieutenant  Stottler  with  two  wives;  since  none 
others  were  permitted,  this  matrimonial  indulgence, 
polygamy,  is,  consequently,  dying  a  natural  death 
at  Mescalero.  It  is  found  hard  to  control  the  an- 
cient practice  of  dropping  a  wife  and  taking  up 
another  without  the  troublesome  formality  of  a 
divorce,  which  has  practically  the  same  result  as 
polygamy.  In  spite  of  the  slipshodness  of  the  mar- 
riage-tie among  the  Indians,  "  they  are,"  says  the 
Lieutenant,  "  about  as  badly  henpecked  as  it  is  pos- 


112  ALAMO    RANCH 

sible  to  imagine.  Not  by  the  wife,  however;  but 
by  that  ever  dreaded  being,  her  mother."  He  gives 
in  his  paper  a  most  amusing  account  of  the  rela- 
tion between  the  son-in-law  and  this  much-maligned 
treasure  of  our  higher  civilization.  "  Just  why  it 
is,"  he  says,  "  no  Indian  has  ever  been  able  to  ex- 
plain to  me,  but  an  Indian  cannot  look  at  his 
mother-in-law. 

"  If  she  enters  his  tepee,  he  leaves ;  if  he  enters 
and  she  is  within,  he  flees  at  once.  He  cannot  stay 
in  her  august  presence.  If  his  wife  and  he  quarrel, 
his  mother-in-law  puts  in  an  appearance,  and  man- 
ages his  affairs  during  his  enforced  absence  so  long 
as  she  pleases.  Perhaps  she  takes  his  wife  to  her 
own  tepee,  where  he  dare  not  follow.  In  this  di- 
lemma, he  either  comes  to  terms,  or  the  situation 
constitutes  a  divorce. 

"  Does  the  agent  wish  a  child  brought  to  school, 
or  a  head  of  a  family  to  take  land,  and  try  to  farm 
it,  the  mother-in-law,  if  hostile  (and  she  usually 
is),  appears  on  the  scene.  Then  the  head  of  the 
family  hunts  the  woods  for  refuge. 

"  The  sight  of  several  stalwart  bucks  hiding  be- 
hind doors,  barrels,  and  trees,  because  a  dried-up, 
wizened  squaw  heaves  in  sight,  is  a  spectacle  that 
would  be  ludicrous,  were  it  not  for  its  far-reaching 
results.  As  an  Indian  may  take,  in  succession, 
many  wives,  who  still  stand  to  his  credit,  the  agent 
has,  practically,  many  mothers-in-law  to  contend 
with.  Consequently,  these  family  magnets  have 
been  oflicially  informed  that  the  guard-house  awaits 
any  of  them  who  may  be  found  maliciously  inter- 
fering with  the  families  of  their  children. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       113 

"  Hard  labor  added  to  this  sentence,  it  is  hoped, 
may  at  length  have  the  effect  of  breaking  up  this 
absurd  superstition." 

By  this  account  it  may  be  seen  that  "  one  of 
the  most  far-fetched  notions  that  ever  entered  into 
the  minds  of  men  "  is  found  domesticated  among  the 
Mexican  aborigines.  It  is  asserted,  as  a  chrono- 
logical fact,  that  the  Mexican  Pueblos  "  invented 
the  mother-in-law  joke  gray  ages  before  it  dawned 
upon  our  modern  civilization." 

The  lamented  Gushing,  in  his  account  of  the 
"  restful,  patriarchal,  long-lonely  world  "  of  his  re- 
search, tells  us  that  he  found  the  mother-in-law  a 
too  pronounced  factor  in  the  Zuni  family  circle; 
and,  as  we  know,  in  our  own  higher  civilization  the 
mother-in-law,  held  in  good-natured  reprobation, 
serves  to  point  many  a  harmless  jest. 

White  enthusiasts  —  with  whom  the  "  wrongs  of 
the  Indian  "  are  a  standing  grievance  —  but  imper- 
fectly realize  the  difficulty  of  taming  these  savages, 
getting  them  well  off  the  warpath,  and  making  them 
cleanly  and  self-supporting.  It  may,  therefore,  be 
well  to  present  the  side  shown  us  by  the  agent  in 
his  able  paper  of  statistical  facts. 

"  The  Apache  tribe,"  he  tells  us,  "  has  one  hun- 
dred and  sixteen  children  at  school,  —  nineteen  at 
Fort  Lewis,  Colorado,  and  ninety-seven  at  the  res- 
ervation boarding-school.  Each  child  has  one-half 
day  in  class  and  one-half  day  of  industrial  work. 
The  girls  take  their  turns  -in  the  laundry,  sewing- 
room,  and  kitchen,  and  at  dormitory  work.  The 
boys  do  the  heavy  work  in  the  kitchen  and  laundry, 
chop  the  wood,  and  till  the  farm  under  the  charge 


114  ALAMO    RANCH 

of  the  industrial  teacher.  All  the  vegetables  for 
their  use  are  raised  on  the  farm,  and  the  surplus 
sold. 

"  The  aim  of  the  school  is  to  teach  the  rising 
generation  of  Apaches  how  to  make  a  living  with 
the  resources  of  the  reservation,  and,  in  time,  to 
become  self-supporting. 

"  To  this  end  useful  rather  than  fancy  trades 
are  taught.  Boys  are  detailed  with  the  blacksmith 
and  carpenter,  to  learn  the  use  of  common  tools. 
To  do  away  with  the  inborn  contempt  of  the  abo- 
riginal male  for  the  women  of  his  tribe,  boys  and 
girls  at  the  reservation  are  not  only  trained  to 
study,  recite,  and  sit  at  meals  with  girls,  but  a 
weekly  *  sociable '  is  held  for  the  scholars. 

"  On  such  nights  they  have  games  and  civilized 
dances.  Every  boy  is  required  formally  to  approach 
and  request,  *  Will  you  dance  this  dance  with  me  ?  ' 
and  to  offer  his  partner  his  arm  when  the  reel, 
quadrille,  etc.,  is  finished,  and  escorting  her  to  her 
seat,  leave  her  with  a  polite  *  thank  you.'  " 

In  the  agent's  report  for  the  years  1896-97,  "this 
year,"  he  says,  "  the  Indian  boys  raised  twenty-five 
thousand  pounds  beets,  twenty  thousand  pounds  cab- 
bage, one  thousand  pounds  cauliflower,  five  hun- 
dred pounds  turnips,  one  thousand  four  hundred 
pounds  celery,  five  hundred  pounds  radishes,  one 
thousand  four  hundred  pounds  of  onions,  nineteen 
thousand  pounds  of  pumpkins  and  squash,  four 
hundred  pounds  of  peas,  nine  hundred  and  sixty 
pounds  of  corn,  six  thousand  five  hundred  pounds 
of  potatoes,  besides  cucumbers,  pie-plant,  and 
asparagus. 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       115 

"  The  school  has  a  pen  of  swine,  a  flock  of 
chickens,  and  a  fine  herd  of  milch  cows;  and  all 
the  'hay  and  fodder  for  them  and  the  horses  are 
raised  on  the  farm.  Oats  and  corn  are  purchased 
from  the  Indians,  who,  in  1895,  raised  one  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  pounds. 

"  The  adult  Indians,"  he  adds,  "  cut  this  year  one 
hundred  and  sixty  cords  of  wood  for  the  school,  for 
which  I  paid  them  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  per 
cord.  In  the  winter  of  1896  the  industry  of  blanket- 
making  was  introduced  into  the  reservation.  Na- 
vajo blanket-makers  were  employed  to  teach  to  the 
Mescalero  women  their  incomparable  method  of 
carding,  spinning,  and  dyeing  wool,  and  weaving 
blankets.  Twenty  of  the  Mescaleros,"  boasts  the 
agent,  "  can  to-day  make  as  good  blankets  as  the 
Navajos  themselves.  ) 

"  The  reservation  is  mountainous,  and  one  of  the 
finest  sheep  ranges  in  the  country.  Government 
has  allowed  five  thousand  sheep  for  general  distri- 
bution at  the  reservation,  and  in  addition,  five  hun- 
dred head  for  the  school ;  where  a  room  is  now  set 
aside  for  the  looms  of  the  older  girls,  who  will,  in 
their  turn,  become  instructors  in  this  useful  art. 
This  puts  into  their  hands  another  opportunity  to 
become  self-supporting." 

The  visitors  from  Mesilla  Valley  were  kindly 
admitted  behind  the  scenes  at  the  reservation,  to 
make  acquaintance  with  its  people,  both  old  and 
young;  and  were  highly  interested  and  entertained 
by  the  picturesqueness  of  the  Indian  character. 

The  Grumbler  had  brought  his  camera  along. 
He  was  a  skilled  amateur  photographer,  and  had 


ii6  ALAMO   RANCH 

offered  his  services  in  that  capacity  to  the  little 
party. 

To  bring  his  household  under  the  focus  of  that 
apparatus  was  no  easy  task  for  the  courteous  agent. 
An  Indian  is  nothing  if  not  a  believer  in  witches. 
In  his  aboriginal  mode  of  life  witch-hunting  and 
witch-punishing  are  among  his  gravest  occupations. 
He  pursues  them  with  a  vigorous  hand,  and  with  a 
superstitious  zeal  equal  to  that  of  the  most  persist- 
ent white  man  in  the  palmiest  days  of  Salem  witch- 
hunting  and  witch-burning.  The  Mescaleros,  to  a 
soul,  are  believers  in  witchcraft.  The  camera,  as 
might  be  seen  from  its  effect,  was  plainly  bewitched. 
They  would  have  none  of  it. 

The  school  children,  having  no  choice,  must 
needs  range  themselves  in  scared,  sullen  rows,  and 
be  "  took  "  under  compulsion. 

Suspiciously  eying  the  operator,  they  sullenly 
took  their  prescribed  pose,  and  heedless  of  the 
immemorial  request,  "  Now  look  pleasant,"  went 
sourly  through  the  terrible  ordeal. 

Some  of  the  older  girls,  pleased  with  the  novelty, 
submitted  more  cheerfully ;  but  the  younger  pupils, 
looking  askance  at  the  white  men,  covered  their 
faces,  so  far  as  was  possible,  with  hair,  or  hands, 
and  were  thus  providentially  carried  safely  through 
this  process  of  bewitchment. 

Some  of  the  schoolboys  had  fine,  intelligent  faces ; 
of  others,  the  Grumbler  subsequently  observed  that 
"  they  were  the  kind  that  grow  up  and  scalp  white 
settlers." 

A  curious  young  squaw,  from  the  opened  slit  of 
her  tepeCy  watched  the  approach  of  the  party  with 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       117 

their  bedevilled  machine.  Her  position  was  excel- 
lent; but  no  sooner  had  the  operator  arranged  his 
camdra  for  a  snap  shot  at  this  picturesque  subject, 
than,  with  a  scared  yell,  the  woman  bounded  out  of 
range,  closing  behind  her  the  aperture  —  her  front 
door. 

The  result  was  merely  an  uninteresting  view  of 
an  Indian  tepee,  which  is  like  nothing  more  than  a 
mammoth  ant-hill,  minus  the  symmetry  and  nice 
perpendicular  of  that  more  intelligently  fashioned 
structure. 

Two  incorrigible  squaws  in  "  durance  vile  "  for 
making  tiswin,  as  they  sullenly  served  their  sen- 
tence of  hard  labor  at  the  reservation  woodpile, 
looked  defiantly  up  from  their  task  of  chopping 
fuel,  and  scowled  viciously  at  the  witch  machine 
and  its  abettors. 

They,  however,  succeeded  in  getting  a  fairly  good 
picture  of  these  hideous-faced  beings,  as  "withered 
and  wild  "  as  the  uncanny  sisters  who  brewed  "  hell 
broth "  before  the  appalled  Macbeth,  beneath  the 
midnight  moon,  on  Hampton  Heath. 

A  mild-eyed  Indian  woman,  whose  peaceful  occu- 
pation was  to  scrub  the  reservation  floors,  kindly 
submitted  to  the  bother  of  being  put  into  a  picture, 
along  with  the  insignia  of  her  office,  —  a  scrubbing- 
pail. 

Not  so  "  Hot  Stuff,"  a  highly  picturesque  squaw, 
claiming  the  proud  distinction  due  to  the  "  oldest 
inhabitant."  This  "  contrairy "  female,  impervi- 
ous to  moral  suasion,  was  finally  induced  to  pose 
before  the  terrible  "  witch-thing  "  by  the  threat  of 
having  her  rations  withheld  until  her  consent  to  be 


ii8  ALAMO    RANCH 

"  taken  "  was  obtained.  Scared  and  reluctant,  she 
was  at  last  photographed;  but  required  Lieutenant 
Stottler  to  protect  her  with  his  arm  through  the 
perils  of  this  unfamiliar  ordeal.  This  he  good- 
naturedly  did,  and  is  immortalized  along  with  this 
aged  squaw. 

After  an  interesting  visit  of  two  nights  and  a 
day  at  the  reservation,  the  Koshare  turned  their 
faces  towards  Mesilla  Valley,  where,  after  two 
uneventful  days,  they  arrived  in  safety,  full  of 
the  novelties  encountered,  charmed  with  the  cour- 
teous and  gentlemanly  agent,  but  wearied  with  the 
long  ride,  and  heartily  glad  to  return  to  white 
civilization. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

IT  was  at  the  close  of  the  week  succeeding  that 
of  the  little  journey  across  the  mountains  that 
the  Koshare  held  their  last  Saturday  evening  ses- 
sion. To  punctuate  the  finality  of  this  gathering, 
a  variation  from  the  usual  programme  was  pro- 
posed by  the  Antiquary.  Members  of  the  Club 
were  requested  to  supplement  his  brief  paper  by 
giving  such  written  or  verbal  statements,  along  the 
same  line  as  their  own  research  might  enable  them 
to  make.  To  this  proposal  many  of  the  Koshare 
had  agreed,  and  had  come  well  primed  for  lively 
discussion. 

The  attendance  was  unusually  full,  nearly  all  the 
boarders,  in  addition  to  the  regular  Club  members, 
being  in  attendance. 

The  Antiquary  led  with  the  following  interesting 
paper,  which,  as  he  explained,  was,  in  a  way,  sup- 
plementary to  those  on  the  Aztecs. 

"  As  the  Tezcucans  were  of  the  family  of  the 
Aztecs,"  began  Mr.  Morehouse,  "and  are  said 
far  to  have  surpassed  them  in  intellectual  culture 
and  the  arts  of  social  refinement,  some  slight  notice 
of  their  civilization  may  not  prove  irrelevant. 

"  Ixtilxochitl  is  the  uneuphonious  name  of  the 
native  chronicler,  purporting  to  be  a  lineal  de- 
scendant of  the  royal  line  of  Tezcuco,  who  has 


I20  ALAMO    RANCH 

given  us  his  highly  colored  narrative  of  the  Tez- 
cucan  civilization.  It  may  be  prefaced  with  the 
information  that  Ixtilxochitl  (who  flourished  so 
late  as  the  century  of  the  Conquest)  has  had  his 
reputation  so  torn  to  tatters  by  the  critics  of  later 
years  that  he  has,  figuratively,  *  not  a  leg  to  stand 
on. 

"  But  as  PreScott  commends  his  *  fairness  and 
integrity,'  and  says  *  he  has  been  followed,  without 
misgiving,  by  such  Spanish  chroniclers  as  could 
have  access  to  his  manuscripts,'  without  attempting 
to  settle  the  vexed  question  of  the  probability  of  its 
details  (which  are  a  combination  of  '  Munchausen ' 
and  *  Arabian  Nights ' ) ,  we  also  will  follow  his 
marvellous  story  of  the  Tezcucan  Prince  Neza- 
hualcoyotl.  Passing  lightly  over  the  fascinating 
chapter  of  that  prince's  romantic  adventures,  — 
his  marvellous  daring,  his  perilous  escapes  from  the 
fierce  pursuit  of  the  usurper  Maxtla,  and  the  de- 
thronement and  violent  end  of  that  bloody-minded 
monarch,  —  we  come  to  the  time  when  Nezahual- 
coyotl,  restored  to  the  throne  of  his  fathers,  is 
firmly  established  in  the  love  and  fealty  of  his 
people,  and  may  turn  his  attention  to  the  produc- 
tion of  the  odes  and  addresses  handed  down  in 
Castilian  by  his  admiring  descendant  Ixtilxochitl. 
This  admirable  monarch  was,  we  are  informed, 
*  the  Solon  of  Anahauc'  His  literary  produc- 
tions turn,  for  the  most  part,  on  the  vanity  and 
mutability  of  human  life,  and  strikingly  embody 
that  Epicurean  poetic  sentiment,  expressed,  at  a 
later  time,  by  our  own  English  poet.  Her  rick,  in 
such  verses  as  *  Gather  ye  rose-buds  while  ye  may.' 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       121 

"  *  Banish  care/  sings  the  royal  Tezcucan  bard ; 
'  if  there  be  bounds  to  pleasure,  the  saddest  life 
must^also  have  an  end.  Then  wear  the  chaplet  of 
flowers,  and  sing  thy  songs  in  praise  of  the  all- 
powerful  God;  for  the  glory  of  the  world  soon 
fadeth  away. 

"  *  Rejoice  in  the  green  freshness  of  thy  spring; 
for  the  day  will  come  when  thou  wilt  sigh  for 
these  joys  in  vain.  Yet  the  remembrance  of  the 
just '  (piously  adds  the  poet)  *  shall  not  pass  away 
from  the  nations;  and  the  good  thou  hast  done 
shall  ever  be  held  in  honor.'  And  anon,  —  re- 
turning to  his  Epicurean  '  muttons,'  —  he  sings : 
*  Then  gather  the  fairest  flowers  in  the  gardens  to 
bind  round  thy  brow,  and  seize  the  joys  of  the 
present  ere  they  perish.' 

"  An  English  translation  of  one  of  Nezahual- 
coyotl's  odes  has  been  made  from  the  Castilian.  It 
harps  upon  the  same  old  string,  as  also  do  his 
prose  essays,  which  have  less  literary  merit  than  his 
verse.  We  are  told  by  his  panegyrist  that  not  all 
the  time  of  this  incomparable  monarch  was  passed  in 
dalliance  with  the  muse,  but  that  he  won  renown 
as  a  warrior,  and  in  the  interests  of  peace  also 
fostered  the  productive  arts  that  made  his  realm 
prosperous,  as  agriculture,  and  the  like  practical 
pursuits.  Between  times  he  appears  to  have  looked 
well  after  the  well-being  of  his  children,  who,  in 
numbers,  rivalled  the  progeny  of  our  modem 
patriarch,  Brigham  Young.  It  is  recorded  that  by 
his  various  wives  this  monarch  had  no  less  than 
sixty  sons  and  fifty  daughters.  (One  condones  his 
disgust  with  life!)    The  Tezcucan  crown,  however. 


122  ALAMO    RANCH 

descended  to  the  children  of  his  one  legal  wife, 
whom  he  married  late  in  life.  The  story  of  his 
wooing  and  winning  this  fair  lady  is  almost  an 
exact  counterpart  of  the  Bible  account  of  King 
David's  treacherous  winning  of  Uriah's  beautiful 
consort. 

"  It  is  related  of  Nezahualcoyotl,  that  having 
been  married  for  some  years  to  this  unrighteously 
obtained  wife,  and  not  having  been  blest  with  issue 
by  his  beautiful  queen,  the  priests  persuaded  him 
to  propitiate  the  gods  of  his  country  —  whom  he 
had  pointedly  neglected  —  by  human  sacrifice.  He 
reluctantly  consented;  but  all  in  vain  was  this 
mistaken  concession.  Then  it  was  that  he  indig- 
nantly repudiated  these  inefficient   Pagan  deities. 

"  *  These  idols  of  wood  and  stone,'  said  he,  *  can 
neither  hear  nor  feel;  much  less  could  they  make 
the  heavens,  and  the  earth,  and  man,  the  lord  of 
it.  These  must  be  the  work  of  the  all-powerful 
unknown  God,  creator  of  the  universe,  on  whom 
alone  I  must  rely  for  consolation  and  support.'  He 
thereupon  withdrew  to  his  rural  palace,  where  he 
remained  forty  days,  fasting  and  praying  at  stated 
hours,  and  offering  up  no  other  sacrifice  than  the 
sweet  incense  of  copal,  and  aromatic  herbs  and  gums. 

**  In  answer  to  his  prayer,  a  son  was  given  him, 
—  the  only  one  ever  borne  by  his  queen.  After 
this,  he  made  earnest  effort  to  wean  his  subjects 
from  their  degrading  religious  superstition,  build- 
ing a  temple,  which  he  thus  dedicated :  *  To  the 
Unknown  God,  the  Cause  of  Causes/  No  image 
was  allowed  in  this  edifice  (as  unsuited  to  the 
*  invisible  God ' ) ,  and  the  people  were  expressly 


A   STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       123 

prohibited  from  profaning  its  altars  with  blood, 
or  any  other  sacrifice  than  that  of  flowers  and 
sweet-scented  gums.  In  his  old  age  the  king  voiced 
his  religious  speculations  in  hymns  of  pensive 
tenderness. 

"  In  one  of  these,  he  thus  piously  philosophizes : 
*  Rivers,  torrents,  and  streams  move  onward  to 
their  destination.  Not  one  flows  back  to  its  pleas- 
ant source.  They  must  onward,  hastening  to  bury 
themselves  in  the  bosom  of  the  ocean.  The  things 
of  yesterday  are  no  more  to-day,  and  the  things  of 
to-day  shall  cease  to-morrow.  The  great,  the 
wise,  the  valiant,  the  beautiful,  —  alas,  where  are 
they?'" 

"  The  compositions  of  Nezahualcoyotl,"  observed 
the  Grumbler,  as  the  Antiquary  folded  away  his 
finished  paper,  "  though  strictly  founded  on  fact, 
are  not  exhilarating.  His  family  was  too  large; 
and  the  wonder  is,  not  that  his  odes  and  hymns  are 
depressing,  but  that  he  should  have  the  heart  to 
'  drop  into  poetry '  at  all !  " 

"  We  are  told,"  rejoined  the  Journalist,  "  by  his 
descendant  with  the  unpronounceable  name,  that 
once  in  every  four  months  his  entire  family,  not 
even  excepting  the  youngest  child,  was  called  to- 
gether, and  orated  by  the  priesthood  on  the  obli- 
gations of  morality,  of  which,  by  their  exalted 
rank,  they  were  expected  to  be  shining  examples. 
To  these  admonitions  was  added  the  compulsory 
chanting  of  their  father's  hymns." 

"  Poor  beggars !  "  pitied  the  Grumbler ;  "  how 
they  must  have  squirmed  under  this  ever-recurring 
royal  *  wet  blanket ! '  " 


124  ALAMO    RANCH 

"You  forget,"  said  Leon  Starr,  coming  to  the 
rescue  of  the  poet-father,  "that  in  view  of  their 
inevitable  mortality  the  bard  had  already  advised 
them  to  *  banish  care,  to  rejoice  in  the  green  fresh- 
ness of  their  spring;  to  bind  their  brows  with  the 
fairest  flowers  of  the  garden,  seize  the  joys  of  the 
present,  and '  —  in  short,  had  given  them  leave  to 
have  no  end  of  larks,  which,  of  course,  they  nat- 
urally and  obediently  did." 

"  It  is  a  noteworthy  fact,"  observed  Mr.  More- 
house, "  that  many  aborigines  —  though  but 
scantily  supplied  with  clothing,  as  the  natives  of 
Samoa  and  the  Sandwich  Islanders  —  take  great 
delight  in  adorning  the  body  with  flowers.  To  this 
liking  the  Tezcucan  king  especially  appeals  in  his 
odes  and  hymns.  The  Mexicans  have  from  time 
immemorial  doted  on  flowers.  This  taste  three 
hundred  years  or  more  of  oppression  has  not 
extinguished." 

"  Do  you  remember,  dear,"  asked  Mr.  Bixbee, 
turning  to  his  wife,  "  the  flower  market  in  the 
Plaza  at  Mexico?"  (The  pair  had,  a  year  or  two 
earlier,  explored  that  city)  — "  that  iron  pavilion 
partly  covered  in  with  glass,  and  tended  by  nut- 
brown  women  and  smiling  Indian  girls  ?  " 

"Shall  I  ever  forget  it?"  was  her  enthusiastic 
response.  "  The  whole  neighborhood  was  fragrant 
with  perfume  of  vases  of  heliotrope,  pinks,  and 
mignonette;  and  such  poppies,  and  pansies,  and 
forget-me-nots  I  never  elsewhere  beheld ! " 

"  One  can  believe  in  absolute  floral  perfection," 
said  the  Journalist,  "  in  a  country  which  embraces 
all    climates.      *  So   accurately,'    observes    Wilson, 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       125 

*  has  nature  adjusted  in  Mexico  the  stratas  of  veg- 
etation to  the  state  of  the  atmosphere,  that  the 
skilful  hand  of  a  gardener  might  have  laid  out  the 
different  "fields,  which,  with  their  charming  vege- 
tation, rise,  one  above  another,  upon  the  fertile 
mountain  sides  of  the  table-land.' 

"  Along  with  many  other  important  vegetable 
growths,  the  cotton-plant  is  supposed  to  be  indige- 
nous to  Mexico,  as  Cortez,  on  his  first  landing, 
found  the  natives  clothed  in  cotton  fabrics  of  their 
own  manufacture.  Its  culture  continues  to  the 
present  day,  but  with  very  little  improvement  in 
method  since  the  earlier  time  of  the  Spanish 
Conquest." 

"  And  now,"  asked  the  Harvard  man,  "  since  we 
are  on  the  subject  of  Mexican  natural  floral  prod- 
ucts, may  I  speak  my  little  piece,  which  I  may 
call,  '  What  I  have  learned  about  the  Cactus  '  ?  " 

The  Koshare  graciously  assenting,  Roger  Smith 
thus  began: 

"  In  Mexico  the  cactus  is  an  aboriginal  and  in- 
digenous production.  Several  hundred  varieties 
are  identified  by  botanists.  A  beautiful  sort  is 
Cereus  grandiflora.  As  with  us,  this  variety 
blooms  only  at  night;  its  frail,  sweet  flower  dying 
at  the  coming  of  day.  The  cactus  seems  to  grow 
best  in  the  poorest  soil.  No  matter  how  dry  the 
season,  it  is  always  juicy.  Protected  by  its  thick 
epidermis,  it  retains  within  its  circulation  that 
store  of  moisture  absorbed  during  the  wet  season, 
and  when  neighboring  vegetation  dies  of  drought 
is  still  unharmed.  Several  varieties  of  cactus  have 
within  their  flowers  an  edible  substance,  which  is. 


126  ALAMO    RANCH 

in  Monterey,  brought  daily  to  market  by  the  na- 
tives. That  species  of  cactus  which  combines 
within  itself  more  numerous  uses  than  any  known 
vegetable  product  is  known  as  the  maguey,  or 
century  plant. 

"  Upon  the  Mexican  mountains  it  grows  wild  as 
a  weed;  but  as  a  domestic  plant  it  is  cultivated  in 
little  patches,  or  planted  in  fields  of  leagues  in 
extent.  Its  huge  leaf  pounded  into  a  pulp  makes 
a  substitute  both  for  cloth  and  paper.  The  fibre  of 
the  leaf,  when  beaten  and  spun,  forms  a  silk-like 
thread,  which,  woven  into  a  fabric,  resembles  linen 
rather  than  silk.  This  thread  is  now,  and  ever  has 
been,  the  sewing  thread  of  the  country.  From  the 
leaf  of  the  maguey  is  crudely  manufactured  sail- 
cloth and  sacking;  and  from  it  is  made  the  bag- 
ging now  in  common  use. 

"  The  ropes  made  from  it  are  of  that  kind  called 
manila.  It  is  the  best  material  in  use  for  wrapping- 
paper.  When  cut  into  coarse  straws,  it  forms  the 
brooms  and  whitewash  brushes  of  the  country, 
and  as  a  substitute  for  bristles  it  is  made  into  scrub- 
brushes,  and,  finally,  it  supplies  the  place  of  hair- 
combs  among  the  common  people.  So  much  for 
the  cactus  leaf;  but  from  its  sap  arises  the  prime 
value  of  the  plant. 

"  From  this  is  made  the  favorite  intoxicating 
drink  of  the  common  people  of  Mexico.  This  juice 
in  its  unfermented  state  is  called  honey  water. 
When  fermented  it  is  known  as  pulque.  The 
flowering  maguey,  the  'Agava  American,'  is  the 
century  plant  of  the  United  States. 

"  In  its  native  habitat  the  plant  flowers  in  its 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       127 

fifteenth  year,  or  thereabout ;  and  we  are  assured 
that  nowhere,  as  is  fabled,  does  its  bloom  require 
a  long  century  for  its  production.  The  juice  of 
the  maguey  Js  gathered  by  cutting  out  the  heart 
of  the  flower  of  the  central  stem,  for  whose  suste- 
nance this  juice  is  destined.  A  single  plant,  thus 
gingerly  treated,  yields  daily,  for  a  period  of  two 
or  three  months,  according  to  the  thriftiness  of  the 
plant,  from  four  to  seven  quarts  of  the  honey 
water,  which,  before  fermentation,  is  said  to  re- 
semble in  taste  new  sweet  cider. 

"  Large  private '  profit  accrues  to  the  owner  of 
maguey  estates,  and  the  government  excise  derived 
from  the  sale  of  the  liquor  is  large.  Pulque  is  the 
lager  of  the  peon.  It  was  the  product  of  the  country 
long  before  the  time  of  the  Montezumas;  and 
Ballou  tells  us  that  *  so  late  as  1890  over  eighty 
thousand  gallons  of  pulque  were  daily  consumed  in 
the  city  of  Mexico.' 

"  It  is  said  to  be  the  peculiar  effect  of  pulque  to 
create,  in  its  immoderate  drinkers,  an  aversion  to 
other  stimulants;  the  person  thus  using  it  pre- 
ferring it  to  any  and  all  other  drinks,  irrespective 
of  cost." 

The  Minister  followed  Roger  Smith  with  an 
account  of  a  famous  tree  of  Mexico. 

"  It  was  at  Papotla,"  said  this  much-travelled 
invalid,  "  a  village  some  three  miles  from  that 
capital,  that  we  saw  this  remarkable  tree,  which  is 
called  *  The  Tree  of  the  Noche  Triste  '  (the  Dismal 
Night),  because  Cortez  in  his  disastrous  midnight 
retreat  from  the  Aztec  capital  is  said  to  have  sat 
down  and  wept  under  it.     Be  that  as  it  may,  the 


128  ALAMO    RANCH 

Noche  Triste  is  undoubtedly  a  tree  of  great  age. 
It  is  of  the  cedar  •family,  broken  and  decayed  in 
many  parts,  but  still  enough  alive  to  bear  foliage. 

"  In  its  dilapidated  condition  it  measures  ten  feet 
in  diameter,  and  exceeds  forty  feet  in  height. 
Long  gray  moss  droops  mournfully  from  its  de- 
caying branches,  and,  taken  altogether,  it  is  indeed 
a  dismal  tree. 

"  It  is  much  visited,  and  held  sacred  and  historic 
by  the  people,  who  guard  and  cherish  it  with  great 
care." 

"  It  calls  up  singular  reflections,"  commented 
the  Journalist,  "  to  look  upon  a  living  thing  that 
has  existed  a  thousand  years,  though  it  be  but  a 
tree.  Though  so  many  centuries  have  rolled  over 
the  cypresses  of  Chapultepec,  they  are  yet  sound 
and  vigorous. 

"  These  trees  are  the  only  links  that  unite  mod- 
ern and  ancient  American  civilization;  for  they 
were  in  being  when  that  mysterious  race,  the  Tol- 
tecs,  rested  under  their  shade;  and  they  are  said 
to  have  long  been  standing,  when  a  body  of  Aztecs, 
wandering  away  from  their  tribe  in  search  of 
game,  fixed  themselves  upon  the  marsh  at  Chapul- 
tepec, and,  spreading  their  mats  under  these  cy- 
presses, enjoyed  in  their  shadow  their  noontide 
slumber.  Then  came  the  Spaniards  to  people  the 
valley  with  the  mixed  races,  who  respected  their 
great  antiquity,  so  that  during  all  the  battles  that 
have  been  fought  around  them  they  have  passed 
unharmed,  and  amid  the  strife  and  contentions  of 
men  have  gone  quietly  on,  adding  many  rings  to 
their  already  enlarged  circumference.     *  Heedless,* 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       129 

says  Wilson,  *  of  the  gunpowder  burned  over  their 
heads  and  the  discharge  of  cannon  that  has  shaken 
their  roots,  as  one  ephemeral  Mexican  government 
succeeded  another,  these  cypresses  still  remain 
unharmed,  and  may  outlive  many  other  dynasties/  " 

"  Apropos  of  the  subject,"  said  the  Antiquary, 
"  Nezahualcoyotl,  according  to  his  descendant,  the 
native  historian,  embellished  his  numerous  villas 
with  hanging  gardens  replete  with  gorgeous 
flowers  and  odoriferous  shrubs.  The  steps  to  these 
charming  terraces  —  many  of  them  hewn  in  the 
natural  porphyry,  and  which  a  writer  who  lived  in 
the  sixteenth  century  avers  that  he  himself  counted 
—  were  even  then  crumbling  into  ruins.  Later 
travellers  have  reported  the  almost  literal  decay  of 
this  wonderful  establishment.  Latrobe  describes 
this  monarch's  baths  (fabled  to  have  been  twelve 
feet  long  by  eight  wide)  as  '  singular  basins,  per- 
haps two  feet  in  diameter,  and  not  capacious 
enough  for  any  monarch  larger  than  Oberon  to 
take  a  ducking  in.' 

**  The  observations  of  other  travellers  confirm 
this  account.  Bullock  tells  us  that  some  of  the 
terraces  of  this  apparently  mythical  palace  are  still 
entire;  and  that  the  solid  remains  of  stone  and 
stucco  furnished  an  inexhaustible  quarry  for  the 
churches  and  other  buildings  since  erected  on  the 
site  of  that  ancient  Aztec  city. 

"  Latrobe,  on  the  contrary,  attributes  these  ruins 

to  the  Toltecs,  and  hints  at  the  probability  of  their 

belonging  to  an  age  and  a  people  still  more  remote. 

Wilson,  on  the  other  hand,  positively  accords  them 

Y  to  the  Phoenicians." 

9 


I30  ALAMO    RANCH 

"  In  reading  up  on  this  famous  empire,  Tezcuco," 
said  Leon  Starr,  "  one  is  inclined  to  believe  that 
every  vestige  of  this  proud  magnificence  could  not 
possibly  have  been  obliterated  in  the  short  period 
of  three  centuries,  leaving  on  the  spot  only  an  indif- 
ferently built  village,  whose  population  of  three 
hundred  Indians,  and  about  one  hundred  whites, 
maintain  themselves  in  summer  by  gardening,  and 
sending  in  their  canoes  daily  supplies  of  *  herbs  and 
sutlers  *  (whatever  this  last  may  be)  to  Mexico, 
and,  in  winter,  by  raking  the  mud  for  the  *  teg- 
nesquita,'  from  which  they  manufacture  salt." 

"Wilson,"  said  the  Grumbler,  "tells  us  that 
*  the  Tezcucan  descendant  of  an  emperor  "  lied  like 
a  priest."  '  However  that  may  be,  one  cannot  quite 
swallow  his  own  relation  *  in  its  entirety.'  " 

"  Right  you  are,"  responded  the  Harvard  man ; 
"  and  now  here  is  Miss  Norcross,  waiting,  I 
am  sure,  to  cram  us  still  further  with  Mexican 
information." 

"  It  is  only,"  said  this  modest  little  lady,  "  some 
bits  that  I  have  jotted  down  about  Mexican  gems ;  " 
and  shyly  producing  her  paper,  she  thus  read: 

"  In  enumerating  the  precious  stones  of  Mexico, 
—  the  ruby,  amethyst,  topaz,  and  garnet,  the  pearl, 
agate,  turquoise,  and  chalcedony,  —  one  must  put 
before  them  all  that  wonder  of  Nature,  —  the 
Mexican  fire  opal,  which,  though  not  quite  so  hard 
as  the  Hungarian  or  the  Australian  opal,  excels 
either  of  them  in  brilliance  and  variety  of  color. 
Of  this  beautiful  stone  Ballou  has  aptly  said,  *  It 
seems  as  if  Nature  by  some  subtle  alchemy  of  her 
own  had  condensed,  to  form  this  fiery  gem,  the 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       131 

hoarded  sunshine  of  a  thousand  years/  He  tells 
us  that,  in  his  Mexican  travels  he  saw  an  opal, 
weighing  fourteen  carats,  for  which  five  thousand 
dollars  was  refused.  *  Really  choice  specimens,'  he 
goes  on  to  say,  *  are  rare.  The  natives,  notwith- 
standing the  abundance  of  opals  found  in  Mexico, 
hold  tenaciously  to  the  price  first  set  upon  them. 
Their  value  ranges  from  ten  dollars  to  ten  hundred.' 

"  In  modern  times,  as  we  all  know,  a  supersti- 
tion of  the  unluckiness  of  the  stone  long  prevailed. 
Now,  the  opal  has  come  to  be  considered  as  desir- 
able as  it  is  beautiful,  and,  endorsed  by  fashion, 
takes  its  rightful  place  among  precious  gems.  A 
London  newspaper  states  that  a  giant  Australian 
opal,  oval  in  shape,  measuring  two  inches  in  length, 
an  inch  and  a  half  deep,  and  weighing  two  hundred 
and  fifty  carats,  is  destined  to  be  given  to  King 
Edward  the  Seventh;  and  that  Mr.  Lyons,  the 
giver,  a  lawyer  of  Queensland,  desires  that  it 
should  be  set  in  the  King's  regalia  of  the  Austra- 
lian federation.  The  London  lapidaries  believe  it 
to  be  the  finest  and  largest  opal  in  the  world. 

"  Its  only  rival  in  size  and  beauty  is  the  Hun- 
garian opal,  possessed  by  Emperor  Francis  Joseph 
of  Austria.  This  gem  is  known  as  the  *  Imperial 
opal,'  and  is  said,  in  its  rainbow  beauty,  to  display 
the  blended  colors  of  the  ruby,  the  emerald,  and  the 
amethyst. 

"  What  is  termed  the  *  fire '  of  the  gem  appears  to 
burn  in  its  remotest  depths,  with  a  glow  and  fervor 
which  at  times  seem  to  convert  the  stone  from  the 
opaque  to  the  semi-transparent." 

"We  have  in  our  own  family,"  said  Miss  Paulina 


132  ALAMO    RANCH 

Hemmenshaw,  supplementing  this  account,  "  a  rare 
Mexican  opal.  Long,  long  ago,  it  was  given  as  an 
engagement  ring  to  my  mother's  youngest  sister, 
by  her  lover,  who,  while  travelling  in  Mexico,  had 
secured  this  exquisite  stone  for  a  betrothal  pledge. 
On  the  very  eve  of  her  wedding-day  my  beautiful 
Aunt  Margaret  died  of  an  unsuspected  heart-disease. 
The  old  superstition  of  the  unluckiness  of  the  opal 
being  then  dominant,  my  aunt's  superb  ring  was 
laid  by  as  a  thing  malignant  as  beautiful. 

**  As  a  child  I  was  sometimes  allowed  to  take  this 
sad  memento  of  my  dead  aunt  from  its  nest  of 
cotton  wool  and  admire  its  harmful  splendor.  At 
my  mother's  death  it  descended,  along  with  all  her 
own  jewels,  to  me,  her  only  daughter.  Now  that 
we  have  outlived  the  foolish  superstition  in  respect 
to  this  precious  stone,  I  have  made  up  my  mind," 
said  the  good  aunt,  beaming  kindly  on  her  niece, 
"  to  take  this  ring  from  the  Safety  Vault,  on  our 
return  to  Boston,  and  make  it  one  of  my  wedding 
gifts  to  this  dear  child." 

"  Many  thanks,  dear  ladies,"  said  Mrs.  Bixbee, 
as  Miss  Paulina  ended,  "  for  your  talks  about  the 
opal.  It  is  my  favorite  among  precious  stones.  I 
even  prefer  it  to  the  diamond,  as  something  warmer 
and  more  alive.  I  am  glad  that  its  character  is 
looking  up  in  these  days." 

"  All  the  same,"  said  Mrs.  Fairlee,  complacently 
turning  on  her  slim  white  finger  a  superb  Hun- 
garian sapphire,  "  nothing  would  tempt  me  to  wear 
a  stone  even  suspected  of  uncanniness.  Trials  and 
crosses,  of  course,  will  befall  one,  but  it  seems  to 
me  foolhardy  to  wear  jewels  supposed  to  attract 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       133 

misfortune,  and,  for  my  part,  I  am  still  suspicious 
of  opals ;  and  were  I  King  Edward,  I  should  n't 
thank  my  loyal  Australians  for  the  gift  of  an  ill- 
omened  jewel,  however  costly  and  beautiful." 

"  Well,'*  commented  the  Journalist,  "  every  one 
for  his  fancy ;  mine,  I  confess,  is  to  '  mouse  round  ' 
among  musty  book-shelves.  Looking  over  my 
portable  store  of  odds  and  ends  for  something 
relevant  to  this  evening's  discussion,  I  came  upon 
this  extract  from  the  *  Voyages  of  one  "  Thomas 
Page,"  '  —  a  black  letter  copy  of  whose  long-for- 
gotten book,  printed  in  London,  in  1677,  is  still 
extant.  As  a  curious  picture  of  the  times,  it  is  not 
without  an  especial  value ;  and,  with  your  approval, 
I  will  now  read  it: 

"  This  account  must  be  prefaced  with  the  ex- 
planation that  Thomas  Page  was  an  English 
Dominican,  who,  as  a  missionary-monk,  with  his 
brother  Dominicans  travelled  to  his  destination  in 
Manila,  by  the  road  across  Mexico,  landing,  by  the 
way,  at  Vera  Cruz,  and  there  depositing  some 
illustrious  fellow-voyagers. 

"  *  When  we  came  to  land,'  says  this  quaintly 
circumstantial  writer,  *  all  the  inhabitants  of  the 
city  had  congregated  in  the  Plaza  to  receive  us. 
The  communities  of  monks  were  also  there,  each 
one  preceded  by  a  large  crucifix,  —  the  Dominicans, 
the  San  Franciscans,  the  Mercedarios, — in  order  to 
conduct  the  Virey  (the  Viceroy)  of  Mexico  as  far 
as  the  Cathedral. 

"  *  The  Jesuits  and  friars  from  the  ships  leaped 
upon  the  shore  from  the  ships.  Many  of  them 
(the  monks)  on  stepping  on  shore,  kissed  it,  con- 


134  ALAMO    RANCH 

sidering  that  it  was  a  holy  cause  that  brought  them 
there,  —  the  conversion  of  the  Indians,  who  had 
before  adored  and  sacrificed  to  demons;  others 
kneeled  down  and  gave  thanks  to  the  Virgin  Mary 
and  other  saints  of  their  devotion,  and  then  all  the 
monks  hastened  to  incorporate  themselves  with 
their  respective  orders  in  the  place  in  which  they 
severally  stood.  The  procession,  as  soon  as  formed, 
directed  itself  to  the  Cathedral,  where  the  conse- 
crated wafer  (called  in  the  English  original  the 
bread  God)  was  exposed  upon  the  high  altar,  and 
to  which  all  kneeled  as  they  entered.  .  .  .  The 
services  ended,  the  Virey  was  conducted  to  his 
lodgings  by  the  first  Alcalde,  the  magistrate  of 
the  town,  and  judges,  who  had  descended  from  the 
capitol  to  meet  him,  besides  the  soldiers  of  the 
garrison  and  the  ships.  Those  of  the  religious 
orders  that  had  just  arrived  were  conducted  to 
their  respective  convents,  crosses,  as  before,  being 
carried  at  the  head  of  each  community. 

"  *  Friar  John  presented  us  [his  missionaries]  to 
the  Prior  of  the  Convent  of  San  Domingo,  who 
received  us  kindly,  and  directed  sweetmeats  to  be 
given  us ;  and  also  there  was  given  to  each  of  us  a 
cup  of  that  Indian  beverage  which  the  Indians  call 
chocolate.  "  This,"  the  good  friar  tells  us,  "  was 
but  a  prelude  to  a  sumptuous  dinner,  composed  of 
flesh  and  fish  of  every  description,  in  which  there 
was  no  lack  of  turkeys  and  capons.  This  feast," 
he  naively  apologizes,  "  was  not  set  out  for  the 
purpose  of  worldly  ostentation,  but  to  manifest  to 
us  the  abundance  of  the  country." 

"  *  The  Prior  of  Vera  Cruz,'  he  informs  us,  *  was 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       135 

neither  old  nor  severe,  as  the  men  selected  to  gov- 
ern communities  of  youthful  religious  orders  are 
accustomed  to  be.  On  the  contrary,  he  was  in  the 
flower  of  his  age,  and  had  all  the  manner  of  a 
joyful  and  diverting  youth.  His  fathership,  as 
they  told  us,  had  acquired  the  Priory  by  means  of 
a  gift  of  a  thousand  ducats,  which  he  had  sent  to 
the  Father  Provincial.  After  dinner  he  invited 
some  of  us  to  visit  his  cell,  and  then  it  was  we  came 
to  know  the  levity  of  his  life.  .  .  . 

"  *  The  cell  of  the  Prior  was  richly  tapestried, 
and  adorned  with  feathers  of  birds  of  Michoacan; 
the  walls  were  hung  with  various  pictures  of  merit ; 
rich  rugs  of  silk  covered  the  tables;  porcelain  of 
China  filled  the  cupboards  and  sideboards;  and 
there  were  vases  and  bowls  containing  preserved 
fruits  and  most  delicate  sweetmeats. 

"  *  Our  enthusiastic  companions  did  not  fail  to  be 
scandalized  at  such  an  exhibition,  which  they  looked 
upon  as  a  manifestation  of  worldly  vanity,  so  for- 
eign to  the  poverty  of  a  begging  friar.  .  .  . 

"  '  The  holy  Prior  talked  to  us  only  of  his  an- 
cestry, of  his  good  parts,  of  the  influence  with  the 
Father  Provincial;  of  the  love  which  the  principal 
ladies  and  the  wives  of  the  richest  merchants  man- 
ifested to  him,  of  his  beautiful  voice,  of  his  con- 
summate skill  in  music.  In  fact,  that  we  might  not 
doubt  him  in  this  particular,  he  took  the  guitar  and 
sung  a  sonnet  which  he  had  composed  to  a  certain 
Amaryllis.  This  was  a  new  scandal  to  our  newly 
arrived  religious,  which  afllicted  some  of  them  to 
see  such  libertinage  in  a  prelate,  who  ought,  on  the 
contrary,  to  have  set  an  example  of  penance  and  self- 


136  ALAMO    RANCH 

mortification,  and  should  shine  like  a  mirror  in  his 
conduct  and  words.  ...  In  the  Prior's  cell  of  the 
Convent  of  Vera  Cruz '  (concluded  this  character 
sketch)  *  we  listened  to  a  melodious  voice,  accom- 
panied with  a  harmonious  instrument,  we  saw 
treasures  and  riches,  we  ate  exquisite  confection- 
eries, we  breathed  amber  and  musk,  with  which  he 
had  perfumed  his  syrups  and  conserves.  O,  that 
delicious  Prior ! '  exclaims  our  English  monk,  the 
humor  of  the  situation  overcoming  his  horror  of 
the  scandalous  behavior  of  the  ecclesiastic." 

**  And  now,"  said  the  Minister,  producing  some 
leaves  of  sermon-like  script,  "  may  I  call  your 
attention,  my  friends,  to  the  striking  analogies 
found  in  the  religious  usages  and  belief  of  the 
Aztec, — correspondent  with  those  of  the  Christian, 
—  some  of  which  I  have  considered  in  this  little 
paper  ? 

"  One  of  the  most  extraordinary  coincidences 
with  Christian  rites  may,  I  think,  be  traced  in  their 
ceremony  of  naming  their  children,  —  the  Aztec 
baptism.  An  account  of  this  rite,  preserved  by 
Sahagan,  is  thus  put  into  English : 

"  *  When  everything,'  says  the  chronicler,  '  neces- 
sary for  the  baptism  had  been  made  ready,  all  the 
relations  of  the  child  were  assembled,  and  the  mid- 
wife, who  was  the  person  that  performed  the  rite 
of  baptism.  After  a  solemn  invocation,  the  head 
and  lips  of  the  infant  were  touched  with  water,  and 
a  name  was  given  it;  while  the  goddess  Cioacoatl, 
who  presided  over  childbirth,  was  implored  that 
"  the  sin  which  was  given  to  this  child  before  the 
beginning  of  the  world  might  not  visit  the  child, 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       137 

but  that,  cleansed  by  these  waters,  it  might  live  and 
be  born  anew."  This/  continues  the  narrator,  '  is 
the  exact  formula  used :  "  O  my  child !  take  and  re- 
ceive the  water  of  the  Lord  of  the  world,  which  is 
our  life,  and  is  given  for  the  increasing  and  renew- 
ing of  our  body.  It  is  to  wash  and  purify.  I  pray 
that  these  heavenly  drops  may  enter  into  your  body 
and  dwell  there,  that  they  may  destroy  and  remove 
from  you  all  the  sin  which  was  given  to  you  at  the 
beginning  of  the  world." 

"  '  She  then  washed  the  body  of  the  child  with 
water.  This  done,  "  He  now  liveth,"  said  she, 
"and  is  born  anew;  now  is  he  purified  and  cleansed 
afresh,  and  our  Mother  Chalchioitlyene  (the  god- 
dess of  water)  again  bringeth  him  into  the  world." 
Then  taking  the  child  in  both  hands,  she  lifted  him 
towards  heaven,  and  said,  "  O  Lord,  thou  seest  here 
thy  creature,  whom  thou  hast  sent  into  the  world, 
this  place  of  sorrow,  and  suffering,  and  penitence. 
Grant  him,  O  Lord,  thy  gifts  and  inspiration;  for 
thou  art  the  Great  God,  and  with  thee  is  the  great 
goddess."  Torches  of  pine  illuminated  this  per- 
formance, and  the  name  was  given  by  the  same 
midwife,  or  priestess,  who  baptized  him.' 

"  The  difficulty  of  obtaining  anything  like  a  faith- 
ful report  of  these  rites  from  the  natives,"  said  the 
Minister,  "was  complained  of  by  the  Spanish  chroni- 
clers, and  no  doubt  led  them  to  color  the  narrative 
of  these  (to  them)  heathen  rites  and  observances 
with  interpolations  from  their  own  religious  belief. 
*  The  Devil,'  said  one  of  these  bewildered  mission- 
ary monks,  *  chose  to  imitate  the  rites  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  the  traditions  of  the  chosen  people,  that 


138  ALAMO    RANCH 

he  might  allure  his  wretched  victims  to  their  own 
destruction/  Leaving  these  monkish  annalists  to 
their  own  childish  conclusions,  and  absurd  inter- 
pretations of  the  Aztec  religious  analogies,  we  pass 
on  to  the  tradition  of  the  Deluge,  so  widely  spread 
among  the  nations  of  the  Old  World,  the  Hebrew 
account  of  which  was  thus  travestied  by  these 
semi-barbarians.  Two  persons,  they  held,  survived 
this  historical  flood,  —  a  man  named  Coxcox,  and 
his  wife.  Their  heads  are  represented  in  ancient 
paintings,  together  with  a  boat  floating  on  the 
waters. 

"  Another  tradition  (which  is  credited  by  Hum- 
boldt) affirms  that  the  boat  in  which  Typi  (their 
Noah)  weathered  the  flood  was  filled  with  various 
kinds  of  animals  and  birds,  and  that,  after  some 
time,  a  vulture  was  sent  out  by  Typi,  to  reconnoitre, 
— as  was  done  in  the  Hebrew  flood, — but  remained 
feeding  on  the  dead  bodies  of  the  giants  which  had 
been  left  on  the  earth  as  the  waters  subsided.  The 
little  humming-bird,  Huitozitsilin,  was  then  sent 
forth,  and  returned  with  a  twig  in  his  mouth.  The 
coincidence  of  this  account  with  the  Bible  narrative 
is  worthy  of  remark. 

"  On  the  way  between  Vera  Cruz  and  the  cap- 
ital stands  the  tall  and  venerable  pyramidal  mound 
called  the  temple  of  Chulola.  It  rises  to  the  height 
of  nearly  one  hundred  and  eighty  feet,  and  is  cased 
with  unburnt  brick.  The  native  tradition  is  that 
it  was  erected  by  a  family  of  giants  who  had  es- 
caped the  great  inundation,  and  designed  to  raise 
the  building  to  the  clouds;  but  the  gods,  offended 
by  their  presumption,  sent  on  the  pyramid  fires  from 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       139 

heaven,  and  compelled  the  giants  to  abandon  their 
attempt. 

"  This  story  was  still  lingering  among  the  natives 
of  the  place  at  the  time  of  Humboldt's  visit  to  it. 
The  partial  coincidence  of  this  legend  with  the 
Hebrew  account  of  the  tower  of  Babel  cannot  be 
denied.  This  tradition  has  also  its  partial  counter- 
part in  the  Hebrew  Bible.  Cioacoatl,  *  our  lady  and 
mother,  the  first  goddess  who  bringeth  forth,'  who 
is  by  the  Aztecs  believed  to  have  bequeathed  the 
sufferings  of  childbirth  to  women  as  the  tribute  of 
death,  by  whom  sin  came  into  the  world,  was  usu- 
ally represented  with  a  serpent  near  her,  and  her 
name  signified  the  *  Serpent-woman.' 

"  This  fable,  as  will  be  seen,  reminds  us  of  the 
*  Eve '  in  the  Hebrew  account  of  the  Fall  of  Man. 
The  later  priestly  narrators,  minded  to  improve 
upon  this  honest  Aztec  tradition,  gave  the  Mexican 
Eve  two  sons,  and  named  them  Cain  and  Abel. 

"  In  this  Aztec  rite,  coming  down  to  us  through 
tradition,  the  Roman  Catholics  recognized  a  resem- 
blance to  their  especial  ceremony  of  Christian  Com- 
munion. An  image  of  the  tutelary  deity  of  the 
Aztecs  was  made  of  the  flour  of  maize,  mixed  with 
blood;  and  after  consecrating  by  the  priests,  was 
distributed  among  the  people,  who,  as  they  ate  it, 
showed  signs  of  humiliation  and  sorrow,  declaring 
it  was  the  flesh  of  the  deity. 

"  We  are  told  by  a  Mexican  traveller,  Torque- 
meda,  a  Spanish  monk,  that,  later  on,  when  the 
Church  had  waxed  mighty  in  the  land,  the  simple 
Indian  converts,  with  unconscious  irony,  called  the 
Catholic  wafer  *  the  bread-God.'  " 


I40  ALAMO    RANCH 

Here  the  discussion  was,  for  a  moment,  inter- 
rupted by  the  withdrawal  of  Miss  Mattie  Norcross 
and  her  invaUd  sister,  who,  wearied  with  long  sit- 
ting, had  dropped  her  tired  head  upon  her  sister's 
shoulder  and  gone  quietly  to  sleep. 

As  the  Grumbler  rose  to  open  the  door  for  the 
two,  all  present  might  see  the  courteous  air  of  pro- 
tection and  kindly  sympathy  which  accompanied  this 
simple  bit  of  courtesy.  Evidently,  the  Grumbler 
had  met  his  fate  at  Alamo  Ranch. 

"  And  now,"  said  the  star  boarder,  coming  finally 
into  the  talk,  "  since  Mr.  Morehouse  has  kindly  con- 
densed for  us  the  history  of  the  aboriginal  Mexican 
from  the  far-off  day  of  the  nomadic  Toltec  to  the 
splendid  reign  of  the  last  Montezuma,  —  treacher- 
ously driven  to  the  wall  by  the  crafty  Cortez,  when 
the  Spaniard  nominally  converted  the  heathen,  over- 
threw his  time-honored  temples,  rearing  above  their 
ruins  Christian  churches,  and,  intent  to  *  kill  two 
birds  with  the  same  stone '  filled  his  own  pockets, 
and  swelled  the  coffers  of  far-off  Spain  with  Aztec 
riches,  —  I  have  thought  it  not  irrelevant  to  take 
a  look  at  the  humble  native  Mexican  as  he  is  found 
by  the  traveller  of  to-day. 

"  First,  let  me  say  that  it  has  been  asserted  of 
Mexico  that  *  though  geographically  near,  and  hav- 
ing had  commercial  relations  with  the  world  for 
over  three  hundred  years,  there  is  probably  less 
known  of  this  country  to-day  than  of  almost  any 
other  claiming  to  be  civilized/  *  To  the  Mexicans 
themselves,'  declares  an  observing  traveller,  '  Mex- 
ico is  not  fully  known;  and  there  are  hundreds  of 
square  miles  in  South  Mexico  that  have  never  been 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       141 

explored;  and  whole  tribes  of  Indians  that  have 
never  been  brought  in  contact  with  the  white  man.* 

"  Mexico  may  well  be  called  the  country  of  revo- 
lutions, having  passed  through  thirty-six  within  the 
limit  of  forty  years.  In  that  comparatively  short 
period  of  time  no  less  than  seventy-three  rulers, 
*  drest  in  a  little  brief  authority/  have  played  their 
parts  upon  the  Mexican  stage  until  the  curtain 
dropped  (too  often  in  blood)  upon  their  acts,  and 
they  were  seen  no  more. 

"  Humboldt,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  pro- 
nounced the  fairy-like  environs  of  the  city  of 
Mexico  '  the  most  beautiful  panorama  the  eye  ever 
rested  upon.'  On  the  table-land  of  this  country  the 
traveller  is,  at  some  points,  eight  thousand  feet 
above  the  level  of  the  sea.  At  such  heights  the  air 
is  so  rarefied  that  the  least  physical  effort  well-nigh 
deprives  the  traveller  of  breath.  *  Through  this 
rarefied  atmosphere  all  the  climates  and  produc- 
tions of  the  world,'  it  has  been  affirmed,  *  are  em- 
braced within  the  scope  of  a  single  bird's-eye  view.' 
In  portions  of  the  country  the  vomito  renders  the 
climate  especially  unkindly  to  the  alien. 

"  We  are  told  that  three  quarters  of  the  present 
Mexican  population  can  neither  read  nor  write,  pos- 
sess little  or  no  property,  and  can  form  no  intelli- 
gent ideas  of  political  liberty,  or  of  constitutional 
government. 

"  The  degraded  condition  of  the  laboring  classes 
is  imputed  in  a  measure  to  the  constitutional  inertia 
of  a  race  who  have  no  climatic  conditions  to  con- 
tend with  in  their  life-struggle ;  whose  simple  wants 
are  easily  satisfied,  and  who  (it  may  be  inferred) 


142  ALAMO    RANCH 

never  know  that  *  divine  discontent  *  which  is  the 
fulcrum  on  which  the  higher  civilization  turns. 
The  manner  of  living,  among  this  class,  is  thus 
described  by  Wells : 

"  *  Their  dwellings  in  the  cities  are  generally 
wanting  in  all  the  requirements  of  health  and  com- 
fort, and  consist  mostly  of  rooms  on  the  ground- 
floor,  without  proper  light  or  ventilation,  often  with 
but  the  single  opening  for  entrance.  In  such  houses 
there  is  rarely  anything  answering  to  the  civilized 
idea  of  a  bed,  the  occupants  sleeping  on  a  mat,  skin, 
or  blanket,  on  the  dirt  floor.  There  are  no  chairs 
or  tables.  There  is  no  fireplace  or  chimney,  and 
few  or  no  changes  of  raiment;  no  washing  appa- 
ratus or  soap,  and  in  fact  no  furniture  whatever, 
except  a  flat  stone  with  a  stone  roller  to  grind  their 
corn,  and  a  variety  of  earthen  vessels  to  hold  their 
food  and  drink,  and  for  cooking,  which  is  gener- 
ally done  over  a  small  fire  within  a  circle  of  stones 
outside,  and  in  front  of  the  main  entrance  to  the 
dwelling. 

"  *  Their  principal  food  is  tortillas,  —  a  sort  of 
mush  made  of  soaked  and  hand-ground  Indian 
corn,  rolled  thin,  and  then  slightly  baked  over  a 
slow  fire.  Another  staple  of  diet  is  boiled  beans 
(frijoles).  Meat  is  seldom  used  by  laborers;  but 
when  it  is  attainable,  every  part  of  the  animal  is 
eaten.  Should  one  be  so  fortunate  as  to  have  any- 
thing else  to  eat,  the  tortilla  serves  as  plates,  after 
which  service  the  plates  are  eaten.  When  their 
simple  needs  are  thus  satisfied,'  says  this  observing 
traveller,  *  the  surplus  earnings  find  their  way  into 
the  pockets  of  the  pulque  or  lottery-ticket  sellers, 


A    STORY   OF   NEW   MEXICO       143 

or  into  the  greedy  hands  of  the  almost  omnipresent 
priest.' 

"  These  lotteries  are,  we  are  told,  operated  by  the 
Church,  and  form  one  of  its  never-failing  sources 
of  income,  proving  even  more  profitable  than  the 
sale  of  indulgences. 

"  The  idolatrous  instinct,  inherited  from  far-off 
Aztec  ancestors,  decidedly  inclines  the  native  Mexi- 
can to  a  worship  that  has  its  pictures  and  images, 
and  its  bowings  before  the  Virgin  and  countless 
hosts  of  saints,  and  the  priest  finds  him  an  easy 
prey. 

"  *  While  we  were  in  the  country,'  says  Ballou, 
*a  bull-fight  was  given  in  one  of  the  large  cities 
on  a  Sunday,  as  a  benefit  towards  paying  for  a 
new  altar-rail  to  be  placed  in  one  of  the  Romish 
churches.' 

"  Religious  fanaticism  takes  root  in  all  classes  in 
Mexico,  even  among  the  very  highest  in  the  land. 
It  is  recorded  of  the  Emperor  Maximilian  —  a  man 
of  elegant  manners,  and  of  much  culture  and  re- 
finement—  that  he  walked  barefoot  on  a  day  of 
pilgrimage  to  the  shrine  of  the  Virgin  of  Guada- 
loupe,  —  distant  some  two  or  three  miles  from  the 
city  of  Mexico,  over  a  dusty,  disagreeable  road. 

"It  is  but  fair  to  add,  in  conclusion,"  said  Leon 
Starr,  "  that  it  is  asserted  of  the  cultivated  classes 
of  Mexico  that  they  are  not  at  all  in  sympathy 
with  the  extortions  and  other  irregularities  of  their 
priesthood." 

With  these  interesting  statistics  ended  the  last 
effort  of  the  New  Koshare  to  combine  improve- 
ment and  entertainment. 


144  ALAMO    RANCH 

Hard  upon  this  more  solid  delight-making  fol- 
lowed the  last  afternoon  tea,  the  lighter  Thursday 
evening  entertainment,  and  the  final  shooting-match. 
All  these  gatherings  took  on  a  tinge  of  sadness  from 
the  certainty  that  the  little  winter  family,  brought 
together  by  Fate  at  Alamo  Ranch,  were  so  soon  to 
separate. 


CHAPTER    XV 

SPRING  had  now  well  come.  In  the  shade  it 
was  already  more  than  summer  heat.  Fortu- 
nately there  is,  in  New  Mexico,  no  such  thing  as 
sun-stroke;  and  one  moves  about  with  impunity, 
though  the  mercury  stands  at  fervid  heights. 

It  was  on  All  Fools'  day  that  the  star  boarder, 
accompanied  by  a  little  party  of  the  Koshare,  — 
made  up  to  escort  him  as  far  on  his  homeward  way 
as  El  Paso,  —  turned  his  back  upon  the  loveliness 
of  Mesilla  Valley. 

Through  all  this  "  winter  of  their  discontent " 
Leon  had  lent  himself  heartily  to  the  work  of  de- 
light-making; and  the  saddest  of  them  all  had  been 
cheered  by  his  genial  atmosphere.  What  wonder  if 
to  these  it  was  but  a  dolorous  leave-taking;  and 
that  amid  the  general  hand-shaking  some  eyes  were 
wet,  and  some  partings  said  with  big  lumps  that 
would  rise  in  swelling  throats!  A  good  face  was, 
however,  put  upon  it  all;  and  even  Fang,  Dennis, 
and  the  chore-boy,  sent  a  blessing  and  a  cheery 
good-bye  in  the  wake  of  the  favorite  boarder. 

As  for  the  small  Mexican  herd-boy,  —  who,  with 
his  best  clean  face,  had  come  up  to  the  ranch  to 
look  his  last  upon  the  adored  white  man  under 
whose  tuition  he  had  become  '*  a  mighty  hunter  be- 
fore the  Lord,"  —  he  simply  "  lifted  up  his  voice 
and  wept." 

10 


146  ALAMO    RANCH 

Following  hard  upon  this  departure  came  the 
general  break-up  of  the  Koshare  circle.  The  Hem- 
menshaws,  with  the  bridegroom  elect,  Roger  Smith, 
were  the  next  to  depart.  Miss  Paulina,  as  may  be 
inferred,  turned  her  face  Bostonward  with  her  heart 
in  her  mouth,  in  view  of  that  account  of  her  chaper- 
onage  to  be  rendered  to  the  father  whose  daughter 
she  had,  as  it  were,  handed  over  to  the  grandson  of 
a  tanner. 

And  here  the  historian,  asking  leave  to  interrupt 
for  a  moment  the  routine  of  the  narrative,  informs 
the  gentle  reader  that  that  august  personage.  Col. 
Algernon  Hemmenshaw,  was  ultimately  placated; 
and  that  if  a  tanner's  descendant  bearing  the  non- 
illustrious  name  of  Smith  was  not  altogether  a  de- 
sirable graft  for  the  Hemmenshaw  ancestral  tree, 
a  fortune  of  more  than  a  round  million  tipped  the 
balance  in  his  favor,  and  the  permitted  engagement 
came  out  in  early  May-time.  Beacon  Hill,  at  its 
announcement,  threw  up  its  hands  in  amazement 
and  distaste.  "  To  think,"  it  exclaimed,  "  that 
Louise  Hemmenshaw,  who  might  have  had  her 
pick  among  our  very  oldest  families,  should  take 
up  with  the  grandson  of  a  tanner!  " 

Out  on  the  mesa  it  is  early  nightfall.  The  little 
day-time  flutter  and  stir  of  moving  things  has,  with 
the  setting  sun,  given  place  to  silence  and  rest. 

A  rounded  moon  looks  serenely  down  upon  the 
grey  sage-brush,  the  mesquite-bushes,  on  the  lonely 
stretch  of  sandy  desert.  The  last  gleam  of  day  has 
faded  from  the  Organ  Mountains,  leaving  them  to 
dominate,   in   sombre   grandeur,   the   distant   land- 


A    STORY    OF    NEW    MEXICO       147 

scape.  In  the  warm,  haunted  silence  of  this  perfect 
night  two  lovers  saunter  slowly  along  the  mesa. 

These  happy  beings  are  not  unknown  to  us.  The 
lady  is  from  Marblehead ;  the  other  has  before-time 
been  dubbed  the  Grumbler. 

The  name  no  longer  fits  the  man.  His  defective 
lung  has  righted  itself  in  this  fine  New  Mexican 
atmosphere.  No  more  is  he  at  odds  with  fate;  he 
has  become  sincerely  in  love  with  life,  with  the 
climate,  and,  most  of  all,  with  the  sweet  little 
teacher  from  Marblehead.  They  are  to  be  married 
early  in  June. 

The  climate  admirably  suits  the  invalid  sister, 
and  it  is  hoped  that  in  this  fine  dry  air  her  well 
lung  may  remain  intact,  and  so  serve  her  for  years 
to  come.  The  Grumbler,  having  money  enough  to 
order  his  residence  to  his  liking,  has  determined  to 
settle  permanently  in  New  Mexico. 

To  that  end  he  has,  for  the  time,  rented  the 
Hilton  place.  Later,  he  intends  to  lay  out  "  as  a 
gift  for  his  fair  "  the  ranch  of  her  dreams.  Here, 
in  the  beautiful  Mesilla  Valley,  we  may  predict 
that  the  married  pair,  like  the  enchanting  couples 
of  fairyland,  will  "  live  happy  ever  after." 

And  now  it  but  remains  for  the  chronicler  of 
the  New  Koshare  to  take  leave  of  "  the  land  of 
sunshine." 

A  backward  glance  at  the  half-deserted  Alamo 
shows  us  a  dreary  handful  of  incurables  still  tilt- 
ing their  piazza-chairs  against  its  adobe  front, 
warming  their  depleted  blood  in  the  grateful  sun- 
shine, and  each,  as  best  he  may,  accepting  the 
inevitable. 


148  ALAMO    RANCH 

Long,  long  ago  it  was  that  the  Pueblos  made  that 
traditional  journey  "  from  Shipapu  to  the  centre  of 
their  world "  with  the  heaven-provided  Koshare, 
in  particolored  attire,  and  fantastic  head-dress  of 
withered  corn-husks,  jesting  and  dancing  before 
them  to  lift  and  lighten  the  weary  road.  Yet 
since  then,  through  all  the  centuries,  the  "  Delight- 
Maker,"  in  one  shape  or  another,  has  been  in 
requisition  in  every  land  beneath  the  sun. 


YC 102770 


